


School Days

by Catfeyrac



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - School, F/M, M/M, im trying to write a story set in england and i am very american im trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-04 10:24:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 27,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3064316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catfeyrac/pseuds/Catfeyrac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan is the new kid at school. All his life he's been alone, but soon he finds a home in Manchester with his new group of friends. But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Day, New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Polski available: [Szkolne Dni](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702463) by [KitsuneeChan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsuneeChan/pseuds/KitsuneeChan)



Beep, beep, beep, beep.  
Dan groaned as he rolled over to hit the snooze button, only to find that it wasn't there. He blearily opened his eyes; his phone wasn't where it would normally be. He sat up and looked over to his desk across the room, where his phone continued to alert him to wake up. He hit his head back onto his pillow, letting out a continuous groan. He laid there for a minute, the beeping beginning to drown out. Then he quickly jumped out of bed before he could have a moment to reconsider getting up. He walked over to his desk and turned the alarm off, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. When he'd taken a second to really wake up, he realized he smelled his mother cooking. The savory smell of bacon cooking started to fill the room. He guessed the first day at a new school had its perks. Now he wished he hadn't woken up, anxiety washing over him. _What would he wear? What would it be like? Would he make friends or would he be a bully's new target?_  
"Daniel, you should hurry if you don't want to be late!" His mother's voice came from the other room.  
Dan took a deep breath and began looking for the day's outfit after turning his straightener on to heat up. Nothing that would stand out, he picked a simple t-shirt and black jeans. He ran the straightener through his hair a few times and ran downstairs with his bag. His mother smiled at him as he walked into the kitchen. She handed him a plate of eggs and bacon, and he sat and quickly ate.  
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm sure you'll meet some nice people and make some friends."  
He made a somewhat disagreeing noise.  
"It's a new town, people will be different." she consoled, taking his plate as he finished. "Have a good day!"  
He waved goodbye as he walked out and began the short walk to his new school.  
The whole time, he worried about every and anything. He didn't want to be the kid who sat alone at lunch and never spoke to anyone unless he had to anymore. He tried to calm himself by looking at the setting he was in. _It was nice_ , he supposed. They were close to the city, but not in it. The road he walked on was surrounded by trees and the occasional hidden driveway, and the leaves had already fallen, crunching under his feet. It reminded him that he would be the new kid. _Maybe it would help him meet people?_ He hoped that everyone would ignore him if it may get negative attention.  
The walk seemed both too long and too short, but either way, he was walking into the campus. He gripped his bag nervously as he walked past the other kids, but they all seemed to ignore him. _Seemed like he would be the invisible boy again_. He walked faster until he reached the office, where the secretary looked up at him and smiled.  
"Hi, um, I'm Dan Howell. I'm new." He said awkwardly, shifting his feet.  
"Oh, yes. One second." She began to shift through some papers, handing a few to Dan. "These are emergency contact sheets and Internet access forms. Try to turn them in by the end of the week or as soon as possible."  
He nodded, half stuffing them into his bag.  
"Here is a map of the campus and your schedule." She said, handing the sheet to him.  
The first bell rang; he thanked her and left, looking at his schedule. He found the classroom on his map and made his way through the crowds to the class.  
The teacher, a middle-aged man by the name of Mr. Connelly, welcomed him into the class. Dan noticed his very Irish accent, only able to understand half the words he was saying. He thought he was saying there was a free seat in the back of the class. He made his way there, feeling awkward as he past the other teenagers, feeling their gazes on him. There was an empty seat at the back, next to a window. There was a boy next to it who was making a paper football. He quietly sat down, unsure of whether or not to talk to him. It was in vain, however, as the paper football hit the side of his head barely a second after he sat down. The other boy quickly grabbed it from the table as Dan blinked in shock.  
"Sorry, my aim is bad; I was aiming it for the seat in front of you." He tossed it onto the desk in front of Dan, before turning back to him. "Hello new guy, looks like I finally get a mate to sit beside me. I'm Chris."  
"Dan..." He said slowly, still unsure of what had just happened.  
"So where are you from, Danny?" Chris asked, folding his arms on the table facing Dan.  
"Dan, and Wokingham."  
"Ah, so very new to this area then. I thought you sounded southern. What bring you to Manchester?"  
"There's a few, but the main one is that my mum found a better job here." Dan said, tapping his fingers across the desk and looking around the filling classroom.  
"Sounds fun. Peej, there's a new kid!" Chris shouted to another boy walking towards them. "Peej, this is Dan, Dan, PJ Lihottie."  
"Liguori." PJ corrected, throwing a packet of crisps at Chris' head. He didn't seem fazed, and instead opened it and started eating them. "Nice to meet you, Dan, and I will go ahead and apologize for anything Chris has said."  
"Hey!" the other boy protested.  
"I wouldn't trust him," PJ said, but he was grinning at Chris.  
"Of course you wouldn't, Mr. Perfection."  
PJ picked up the little paper football lying on the desk and unfolded it. Dan could see something was written on it. PJ quickly crumbled it before Dan could see what, but judging by the redness in PJ's face it wasn't very good. Especially since Chris had a sinister smirk on his face.  
The bell rang before any of them could say anything, and the teacher began talking about equations.  
"Don't worry Dan, you're probably at about the same point as we are; no one can ever tell what he's saying because of his accent." Chris said as he doodled on the paper he was supposed to be taking notes on.  
  
After Maths, the day was fairly uneventful. A few kids ogled at him and he took notes for the classes before lunch. Chris and PJ had invited him to sit with them, so he quickly found them in the cafeteria. As he sat, he heard a group of girls whispering about them.  
"Look, he's new!"  
"He's pretty cute, don't you think?"  
"I wonder if he's gay."  
"Probably, if he's hanging around those two."  
He ignored the whispers; he'd had his share of gay jokes before, and it really wasn't any of his business of the sexualities of his new friends. _It didn't matter anyways if they were willing to be his friends_.  
"How's first day going? I mean, other than meeting the two coolest lads in England in your first class." Chris asked him, staring at him intently like it was an interrogation.  
Dan scooted a little away from Chris before answering, "Not much happened."  
"So far! You may meet a hot girl, or guy, whichever way you swing."  
"I don't know, that's never really been my sort of thing. I mean, no one really talked to me unless they were calling me a Gaylord."  
"Wow... Lord of the gays then, I bow to thee, Your Highness," Chris stood and bowed dramatically to the flushing Dan.  
"Sit down, you look like a twat." PJ said, looking up from the book he'd been reading.  
"Oh, but I thought I was one."  
PJ sighed, shaking his head. "If you do meet someone, I hope you don't get stuck with someone like this git."  
"You love meee..."  
Chris sat back down and hugged PJ as the latter went back to reading and ignoring him with a look of slight irritation. Dan hid his laugh behind a cough and took to looking about the lunchroom. He recognized some of the people from other classes, all jumbled together in the big room. He turned back to Chris and PJ, where Chris had removed himself from PJ and was now happily eating another packet of crisps.  
"So whaddagot next?" he asked in between mouthfuls.  
"Drama, then I have Humanities."  
"Aw, look at that, a performer in our midst."  
"My mum thinks that drama could help me open up. Although, today I've spoken to people so I'm sure she'll be thrilled."  
"Well, they are good classes. My mum put me in drama for a semester, I was awful. Not because I couldn't act. Actually, I think I was kicked out of the class for accidentally setting fire to the stage during a practice." Chris said casually.  
Dan stared at him, and Chris laughed at the slightly scared expression on his face.  
"Alright, alright, don't scare the lad," PJ said, hitting Chris in the arm.  
The bell rang to head to class, and they said goodbye.  
"Until tomorrow, parting is such sweet sorrow," Chris bowed as he walked off with PJ.  
Dan couldn't help but smile. _They were weird- well, at least Chris was- but nice- or at least PJ was. And they seemed to want to be his friends, something Dan had never encountered before. Maybe his mother had been right. At least no one had pushed him into a wall_ , he thought as he found his way into the Drama room.  
It was the biggest room other than the cafeteria Dan had seen in the school so far. There were a few rows of chairs in front of a small stage, with posters of various plays and musicals plastered on the walls. A girl stood and walked to him as he entered the room. _Wow, she was really pretty_. Her long brown hair was pulled in a ponytail, and she was wearing an oversized sweater.  
"Hello, I'm Zoe! I'm guessing you're the new student?" her accent wasn't exactly the same as some of the others he'd heard. _It wasn't Northern, like Chris'. Maybe she was from the West Country area._  
"Yeah, I'm Dan," he said awkwardly.  
"Well, no need to be scared, this is a very friendly environment, and the people here are such lovely people. Have you met many people so far?"  
"Two boys in my first class, PJ and Chris."  
"Hm, I don't know them; I do suppose they are in your year though. You're a year 10, right?" She asked.  
He nodded, taking another look around the room. There were only a few other people in the room, and it looked like the teacher hadn't shown up yet.  
"Maybe Troye knows. Come on, I'll introduce you to my friends!" Zoe led him to two of the others in the room. A blonde girl was tying her hair up, and a younger-looking boy was texting someone on his phone.  
"Dan, this is Troye and Louise, guys, this is Dan!" Zoe said as she approached the two with Dan in tow.  
"Hello!" Louise said in a cheery tone.  
"Hi," Troye said, quickly finishing his text before looking up at Dan.  
"He's our new student, and so far he's only really met two people," Zoe explained, sitting next to Louise. She gestured for Dan to sit, and he sat next to her.  
"Oh really? Who?" Louise asked, sitting forward to see him.  
"Chris Kendall and PJ Liguori," he answered, trying not to feel uncomfortable.  
"Do you know them, Troye?" Zoe asked.  
Troye shook his head. "I was in a class with both of them last year, but I never really talked to them. They seemed nice enough though."  
Dan furrowed his brows. _He didn't even sound British._  
"Noticed the accent, did you?" Louise said with a grin.  
"Yeah, sorry, just shocked me a little." Dan somewhat wished he could sink into the ground. _Why? It wasn't even that big of a deal! He needs to calm down, they are nice people_ , he told himself.  
"I'm from Perth. Australian, and I moved here last year. New kid thing is something I've done, so don't worry."  
He nodded, unsure of what to say next. Luckily, Louise took this moment to lean over to Zoe and whisper, "Alfie was looking at you."  
Dan took a glance over to where the two girls were now looking. A dark haired boy was looking over sure enough, quickly looking down when he saw her looking over. Dan thought he looked familiar; _maybe he'd been in one of his other classes?_  
"D'aww, Zalfie is gonna be a thing soon, I'm calling it," Troye said, grinning at Zoe, who had a faint redness dusting her cheeks that had nothing to do with her makeup. She hit him playfully, and Dan could at least appreciate how comfortable they were with each other, even if he felt out of place.  
The bell rang and a few moments of chatter later, the teacher walked in. She was a young blonde woman; _she could easily pass for a Uni student._ She saw Dan and smiled.  
"Hello, you must be Daniel Howell! I'm Mrs. Bennett. You may have missed a bit in class, but I'm sure you'll catch up soon. But now, you are just in time, because we are about to start a production. Now, auditions are all next week. You'll have a little time in class each day to prepare your auditions, but I expect a little effort afterschool as well. Since this is the first production of the year, we are doing a very well-known play. And for the musicians, musicals will be next semester. But this production is Romeo and Juliet!"  
Zoe and Louise grabbed each other's hands, excited. Troye let a breathy laugh at the two.  
"For auditions, you will prepare a monologue, of your own or from an existing play. It doesn't really matter either way, so don't feel an obligation to either. Everyone in this room, save for me, will be in the production, so don't worry."  
Dan held his breath and stopped listening. _A mandatory spot in a play? He'd have to go up in front of a crowd, and have every opportunity to make an absolute fool of himself. Why did his mother think this would be a good idea? The only reason he agreed at all was because he figured he could stay out of the productions. Well, maybe he could just get a background part. Just because he had to be in it didn't mean he had to be a lead. He could just be one of the people in the background._  
"Now, you have the class to start preparing auditions and begin memorizing them."  
Zoe turned back to Dan, "So what part do you want?"  
"I don't know, I don't really want one. I didn't know being in the play would be mandatory... I've never done anything like this. I guess I'd just be one of the background characters," he explained awkwardly.  
"Oh, come on. It will only be worse for you if you don't want to do it," Troye said.  
"Yeah, I didn't want to do Drama when I started. I only did it so I could have a class with Zoe. But I stopped being so nervous and let myself have fun, and now it's one of my favorite classes," Louise piped in.  
"It will be fun, if you don't worry about the crowd or anything." Zoe said.  
Dan thought for a second. _Maybe they were right._  
"Well... Not Romeo. Maybe Benvolio? He's a cool guy, you know?" he said after a moment.  
"Yeah, I could see you as Benvolio. Oh, I'm so excited! I love the productions, they're always so fun!" Zoe squealed.  
"Oo, Benvolio has a monologue! You could do that for your audition. Mrs. Bennett will never admit it, but she loves it when we audition with something for the characters we want." Louise showed him the monologue she'd pulled up on her phone.  
He read through it quickly, recognizing the monologue from when he read it in English before.  
"Yeah, I guess that'll work."  
They fell into silence as they began searching for their monologues. Dan realized he didn't feel as awkward anymore... _The silence wasn't awkward._  
"Do you think the "but soft, what light through yonder window breaks" monologue is too overdone to do?" Troye asked out loud.  
Zoe laughed, "Only if I do the "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou" one. She'll love it. Especially if you are doing it."  
Dan laughed along with the others, feeling a lot better than when he walked in. The time seemed to fly by before the class ended. All three of them exchanged numbers with Dan, telling him to message them if he needed help with lines or needed a friend.  
He was still smiling as he walked into his last class. The teacher welcomed him into the class, pointing out a seat for him. It was the far row again, by the window. _It even seemed less gray and cloudy than it was earlier_. He sat down, and the boy beside him looked over at him.  
"You're new here?"  
Dan nodded, looking over at him. He had a similar hairstyle to Dan, a long fringe, although his hair was darker. His black hair made his blue eyes stand out a little. Dan couldn't help but think _he was cute_.  
"Good, wanted to make sure I wasn't going crazy or something. I'm Phil," he said with a smile.  
"Dan," he said giving a small smile back. Seemed his nerves going away wasn't permanent.  
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Dan."  
There was a moment of silence, and Dan tried to think of things to say, or whether or not he should.  
"Do you like Pokémon?" Phil asked.  
Dan nodded, thankful for a topic he liked. "Of course, who doesn't?"  
"Only weirdoes," Phil said, grinning at him.  
"Well, if we're gonna be real here, it would probably be normal and sane people."  
"Well then they're boring. What's your favorite game?" Phil asked.  
"I dunno, I like all of them really, kinda hard to choose one."  
"Good answer."  
The bell rang before Dan could respond, and the teacher started the lecture.  
An hour of note-taking later, the bell rang. All of the kids ran out of the classroom, and Dan and Phil are left alone, packing up the rest of their things.  
"How do you get home?" Phil asked, zipping his bag up.  
"Walk. I don't live very far," Dan replied, cramming his folder into his bag.  
"Me too! Which way?"  
"I live on Newbury," he said, shouldering his bag on.  
"We live on the same street!" Phil said excitedly, "we could walk home together if you want."  
"Sure, but we may have to find a new topic, cause things like my favorite Pokémon are confidential information." Dan joked.  
Phil laughed as they walked out of the classroom together. Phil led him out of the halls and outside. Dan saw Troye walking another and waved back at him as he passed.  
When they walked out of the school, Phil spoke up again.  
"So, other than Pokémon, what do you like?"  
"Well I like spending the majority on the Internet or playing video games."  
"Like what?"  
"Old childhood games like Crash Bandicoot and Sonic. Sometimes Skyrim or Halo."  
"Oh, I love Crash and Sonic!"  
"Nothing like weird half-humanoid mutant creatures doing pointless things like collecting rings or breaking crates." Dan said, laughing.  
Phil laughed along, agreeing.  
"What about you?" Dan asked.  
"Buffy and Muse are slight obsessions I have."  
"I love Muse! Jeez, you just have to say you watch anime and we'll be like soulmates." Dan said in amazement.  
"I guess we are soulmates then," Phil grinned.  
"Mind bloowwwnn," Dan said, making explosion noises as he imitated his brain exploding. "I seemed to have found a friend for once."  
"What do you mean?" Phil asked.  
"I didn't really have any friends at my old school. Like at all." Dan explained simply.  
"Oh. Well, I only had one really good friend for most of my school years."  
"You say it in past tense... What happened?"  
"He died in a car crash a couple years ago. I haven't really had any friends since then..." Phil stared at the ground.  
"Oh... I'm sorry," Dan said awkwardly.  
"It's alright. Maybe this could be the start of a new friendship." Phil looked back at Dan.  
"Yeah... Maybe we both won't be lonely anymore," Dan looked up at Phil.  
"I guess we both made a new friend today then," Phil said, smiling again.  
Dan smiled back, nodding in agreement.  
They chatted about the non-heavy stuff like TV shows and movies they liked again for the rest of the walk. Phil gave Dan his number as they neared his driveway. He said goodbye before he walked away, and Dan felt even better than after Drama. He felt like he could skip the rest of the road as he thought about the day he'd had. _He hadn't become some bully's target, people talked to him, he even made a few friends. Hell, he made six friends. He had four more contacts in his phone and Chris and PJ invited him to sit with them at lunch again._  
"How was your day, Dan?"  
He blinked. He hadn't even realized he walked into his house, he was so lost in his thoughts.  
"Yeah, it was great," he said, opening the cabinet for a snack.  
"Did you make any friends?" His mother asked.  
"Yeah, six, actually. And I'm going to be auditioning for the Drama play."  
His mother let out a sound of delight as she hugged him.  
"Oh, what are their names? Where'd you meet them?" She pressed.  
"I met Chris and PJ in Maths, and I ate lunch with them. Zoe, Louise, and Troye are in Drama, and I met Phil in Humanities. Turns out he lives just down the road and we have a lot in common."  
His mum smiled at him, "I'm glad you met some people. I'm so proud of you, Dan."  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, enough of the sappy stuff," Dan said as he grabbed a bag of crisps, but he was still smiling. "I'm gonna go do my homework."  
He went up to his room and dropped his bag next to his bed as he jumped onto it and laid there for a moment with his eyes closed, still radiating with happiness. A ding interrupted his slight dozing off. He fished his phone out of his bag. Troye had texted him.  
 **Troye: 'Who was that guy you were walking with? He looked cute ;)'  
** Dan felt himself turn a little red as he read it. He guessed he couldn't exactly deny he'd thought it himself.  
 **Dan: 'Phil, he's in my last class'**  
He supposed that was a safe bet at least. He pulled his bag up onto the bed and fished his math homework out. Troye texted back a few minutes later.  
 **Troye: 'Zoe and Louise kinda know him'**  
 **Troye: 'Well, in the kind of way I know your other friends'**  
 **Troye: 'He's in year 11'**  
Dan wondered if Phil knew he was younger than him, and if he'd care. _It would only be a two year difference at most; it wouldn't matter, would it?_  
 **Troye: 'She says he usually sits alone'**  
 **Dan: 'yeah, he told me his best friend died a couple years ago...'**  
 **Troye: 'Wow... Heavy'**  
 **Dan: 'Yeah'**  
 **Troye: 'Well** **did you make him a friend too?'**  
 **Dan: 'Yeah, we have a lot in common. Plus we walked home together'**  
 **Troye: 'Aww'**  
Dan couldn't help but wonder if there was something else Troye knew about Phil. Or at least that Zoe or Louise told him. His answer came a moment later.  
 **Troye: 'Louise says he's bi. Came out two years ago in one of her classes'**  
 **Troye: 'What about you?'**  
 **Dan: 'what? Like what my sexuality is?'**  
 **Troye: 'Yeah, if you wanna tell me'**  
 **Troye: ‘its fine if you don't want to'**  
 **Troye: ‘or don't know'**  
Dan thought for a moment. He guessed it wouldn't hurt.  
 **Dan: 'I’m bi too'**  
Troye didn't text back for a couple minutes, and of all the responses he was expecting, what he got wasn't one of them.  
 **Troye: 'Phan'**  
Dan tried to think of what it could mean but he couldn't.  
 **Dan: 'What??'**  
 **Troye: 'Phan'**  
 **Troye: 'Phil'**  
 **Troye: 'Dan'**  
 **Troye: 'Phil+Dan=Phan'**  
 **Troye: 'Or Dil'**  
 **Troye: 'But phan sounds better'**  
Dan stared at his phone for a second.  
 **Dan: 'You made us a ship name?'**  
 **Troye: 'yup'**  
 **Troye: ‘it may not be as great as Zalfie is right now, but it could get there'**  
Dan could picture Troye grinning at his phone as he sent them.  
 **Dan: 'I don't even know what to say tbh'**  
 **Troye: ‘you don't need to say anything right now, but I'm gonna go ahead and ship it'**  
At a loss for words, Dan said **'gtg, homework'** and tried to concentrate on his math. But it seemed like Troye had planted something in his mind. He kept wondering if Phil would like him. _Maybe he did? Maybe he wouldn't._ _  
_"Stop it," he said aloud to himself. "I just met him."


	2. Falling

The next day, Dan was, for once in his life, excited to go to school. He was still nervous, but there was such a start to the new place that he didn't care. He didn't even mind waking up as much as he had yesterday. As he was getting dressed, his phone dinged.  
 **'Wanna walk together?'**  
It was Phil. He quickly texted back.  
 **Dan: 'Yeah, five minutes'**  
He quickly did his hair and packed his homework up. He ran downstairs and grabbed a protein bar from the pantry and stuffed it in his bag. He then fast walked to Phil's house.  
Phil was waiting for him, playing on his phone to pass the time. He put it in his pocket as Dan walked over.  
"Hi Dan," Phil greeted with a smile.  
Dan waved, a little out of breath from half running.  
They headed off, starting to talk about Dan's day.  
"Did you make any other friends yesterday?" Phil asked.  
"Why, would you be jealous?" Dan bantered back.  
"No, I was just curious!"  
Dan couldn't help but think that Phil might be blushing. He blinked and looked back ahead, trying not to think of the conversation he'd had with Troye the night before.  
"I did. I met Chris and PJ in Maths, Zoe, Louise, and Troye in Drama."  
"Zoe Sugg and Louise Watson?"  
"I guess. I didn't get their last names. I know they're both in year 11," Dan explained.  
Phil nodded, "yeah, they're both in my year. I don't know the others... Are you a year 10?"  
"Yeah..."  
"Sorry, I'm not trying to weird you out or anything. I don't mind hanging out with such a little boy," Phil teased.  
Dan rolled his eyes, "Whatever, granddad."  
They both burst out laughing, and it took them a minute to stop.  
"So what are the others like, then?" Phil asked.  
"Well Chris is a little weird and literally the craziest person I've ever met." Phil laughed as Dan talked, making him stop. "What?"  
"Sorry, I liked the way you said literally. Litrally," Phil laughed.  
Dan pushed him playfully before continuing. "PJ is pretty quiet so far. He kinda seems to act like Chris' babysitter, but I think they might be dating? I don't know, but whatever. Troye is pretty cool. He's Australian. I mean, I only met all of them yesterday so I can't exactly give you a detailed description of them."  
Phil nodded, "Pretty cool that you met so many people in one day. I guess you had the new kid factor going for you."  
Dan shrugged, "the people here seem nicer. At my old school, people generally tended to ignore me or bully me. Nothing major," he added quickly when he saw Phil's face, "just the occasional name calling and a shove into a wall."  
"That's terrible!"  
Dan shrugged again. "It wasn't that big a deal. I'm just glad to be gone, really."  
They turned into the courtyard of the school, and they had barely stepped through when someone called his name.  
"Dan!"  
He looked up to see Troye waving him over. Phil looked awkwardly at him, unsure as whether or not to join. Dan gestured for him to come along, immediately regretting it as he remembered the conversation from last night again. Phil followed him as he walked over to Troye, who gestured to sit. They both took a seat at the small round table.  
"So, this is Phil?" Troye asked as soon as they sat.  
"Yeah," Dan said, noticing the somewhat confused expression on Phil's face. "Troye asked me about you last night. He saw us walking together yesterday and was curious."  
Troye had a small grin on his face as he looked between the two of them. Dan tried not to feel uncomfortable as an awkward silence clouded over. Thankfully, Zoe and Louise both arrived a moment later.  
"Hi Dan! Hello Phil, it's good to see you," Louise said cheerily as they took their seats in between Dan and Troye.  
Phil smiled at her, giving a small greeting back.  
"I spot Alfie," Troye said to Zoe with the same grin.  
Dan wondered if he would get that kind of alert if Phil walked past when he was with Troye.  
"Shut up, Troye! He's younger than me anyways," Zoe said in a weak attempt to counter him.  
"Only a year, no big deal. Besides, a ship with a little age difference is cute, don't you think, Dan?"  
Dan wanted to put his head in his hands, but it would be too conspicuous, and he definitely didn't want to make things awkward. So he settled just a shrug. Troye seemed unfazed by his nonchalantness as he turned back to Zoe.  
"See, Dan agrees. I mean, I could understand the hesitation if he was like three years younger, but he's only a year under you!"  
Zoe smacked his arm.  
"Don't worry, Dan. You'll get a lot of this if you hang out with us." Louise whispered to him.  
It didn't sound like such a bad idea, really.  
  
By the time Friday rolled around, Dan had a routine made up. Walk with Phil to school; hang out with Zoe, Phil, Louise, and Troye before school; eat lunch with Chris and PJ; practice lines with Zoe, Louise, and Troye; walk home with Phil. He was sure his mum wouldn't mind his phone bill spiking up since for once it wasn't just her he was messaging.  
As they walked home, Phil turned to him.  
"Wanna come over this weekend? I have a bunch of games we could play. I might even let you pick," he said playfully.  
"I'll have to ask, but I'm sure she'll say yes." Dan said, pulling his phone out and messaging his mother with the question.  
A few minutes later she answered with a yes.  
"So I'll see you tomorrow?" Phil asked as they neared his driveway.  
"Yeah, I'll bring my DS so I can kick your butt in a Pokémon battle too," Dan answered, smiling.  
"You're on! Come by around noon I guess, and maybe you can ask if you can stay the night for ULTIMATE COMBAT."  
  
The next day, Dan walked over to Phil's house. He'd past it twice each day for a week, but this was the first time he was going inside. When he knocked on the door, a woman, who Dan guessed was Phil's mum, answered.  
"Hello, you must be Dan! Come in, come in! Do you want anything to eat?"  
"No thanks, I just ate before I came over." Dan refused politely.  
"Alright, Philip is in his room, second door on the right. Let me know if you boys need anything."  
He nodded and walked over to the door. It was slightly open, so he pushed it open and walked in. Phil greeted him from his bed, where he was reading.  
"Hello, Philip," Dan said teasingly.  
"Did my mum call me that? Whatever. Daniel," Phil teased back, dog-earring his page and setting it down.  
"How did you know?" Dan said dramatically, sitting on his bed.  
"Lucky guess."  
"So... My mum said I could stay the night. So what do we start with?"  
"Mortal Kombat," Phil said seriously, grabbing two controllers.  
  
"Ha! My Snivy can take your Gengar anytime, I am the ultimate champion!" Dan said, a little too loudly.  
"Shhh! My mum is asleep!"  
"What time is it?"  
"It's like three in the morning," Phil said, checking the time on his phone.  
"Oh... Oops," Dan said, much quieter.  
Phil laid back against his pillow, yawning. "I didn't even realize it was so late."  
"Me neither."  
"It's too late to really make you another bed..." Phil said contemplatively.  
"I don't mind. I mean, is sharing a bed really that big of a deal anyways? Girls do it all the time."  
Phil nodded tiredly. The light had long gone off, when they started battling Pokémon, so Dan had to find his way under Phil's duvet in the dark.  
"Night Dan," Phil muttered.  
"Night Phil," Dan said quietly back.  
But he couldn't sleep. All he could think was how _he could feel Phil's warmth radiating from beside him, and hear the sound of Phil breathing quietly. He was well aware of how close he was to Phil in the single person bed. What would Troye say if he saw this, if he knew what Dan was thinking? It was his fault. He probably wouldn't even have thought of Phil like that at all if Troye hadn't teased him about him. But thinking back to when he first spoke to Phil, he wasn't so sure. He had still really liked Phil before Troye had even mentioned him, he couldn't deny it to himself. But would he act on it? Not at all. Even if Phil was bisexual, he didn't want to make things weird between them. No, he wouldn't try anything. He was perfectly content to just be Phil's friend. Maybe even his best friend. Best friend... Something Dan had never had. This seemed like the start to a best friendship, though. Reassured by these thoughts, he fell asleep next to Phil, but he couldn't help but wonder if the other boy might be thinking of him._  



	3. Talking of Ships and Plays

"Wait wait wait, so you actually slept next to each other?" Troye's voice said excitedly from Dan's phone.  
Dan was sat on his bed, leaning against the wall. "Yeah, but it's not that big of a deal. Girls do it all the time."  
"Yeah, because you two are definitely Zoe and Lou the last time I checked. And apparently it's not that small of a deal if you're calling to tell me about it," Troye said cheekily.  
"That's not why I called you. I thought you'd love to hear what was happening with this whole "Phan" thing."  
"OOo, so there's more?"  
"I think I figured out exactly what I feel about him."  
He literally heard Troye shoot up from the phone.  
"I think I might have a BIT of a crush on him... BUT, I am content to be his friend. I'd rather be his friend, I guess. I like hanging out with him, and yeah it'd be cool to date him, but I don't want to make things awkward between us, you know. That's why I called, because you can't be trying to push us together, cause I really don't want to chance blowing it with him."  
Troye was silent for a moment.  
"Alright, alright, I'll lay off. When he's there. No promises when he's not though," he teased.  
Dan groaned, "Fine. I guess that's fair enough."  
Troye let out a little giggle. Dan couldn't help but laugh back.  
"So, do you have your monologue all memorized?" Troye asked after a few moments.  
"Yeah, but don't expect me to recite it now. I'm too tired; we stayed up until 3 playing Pokémon."  
"Aww, you geeky lovebirds."  
"Shut up, Romeo."  
"Not yet. But Zoe is right, Mrs. Bennett loves us, so she'll probably cast us as leads. Plus, we're in the older class. I doubt she'd get a year 7 for lead." Troye said.  
"Don't doubt those 12 year olds, they'll kick your ass and take your part," Dan joked.  
"Oh god, I'm terrified," Troye said in a fakely serious tone.  
"You should," Dan said, laughing.  
"Wait, one sec," Troye said suddenly.  
After thirty seconds of silence, he spoke again, "hey, I'm gonna have to go. My boyfriend is calling me."  
"You have a boyfriend?"  
"Well I call him my boyfriend, but he's my best friend. Like you and Phil. He lives in America, so we have a little online relationship. I'll explain later. See ya," Troye explained.  
"Bye," Dan said as the call ended. He through his phone on the bed and laid back down. He closed his eyes and fell back asleep shortly after.  
  
He woke with a start, hearing his phone ring again. He looked at his clock; he'd slept for a couple hours. It was Troye again. He answered it, "Hello?"  
"So I realized that you don't know about Troyler or Zalfie, so I should catch you up," Troye said seriously.  
"Oookaaay..."  
"So obviously Zalfie is Zoe and Alfie, that kid in our Drama class. Zoe thinks he's cute, and I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her."  
"Yeah, I guessed as much," Dan said, sitting back up on the bed.  
"And Troyler is me and Tyler. Zoe made the ship name since I made one for her. But Tyler is the guy I was talking about before, and he is SO cute. The problem is that he lives in Michigan, in AMERICA. He's on a whole different time zone, which is why I had to go right then, cause we barely get time when we are both awake. He's also two years older than me, and I have no idea if he likes younger boys." Troye ranted.  
"Wow, that sounds fun," Dan said sarcastically.  
"Don't you take that tone with me. But, good news, he might be able to come to Manchester over the summer."  
"So you might get to see him IRL in like nine months," Dan stated.  
"Yeah, for the first time. We skype and stuff so it'll be kinda weird to see him in person." Troye sounded a little nervous all of a sudden.  
"But even if it is weird or awkward at first, it'll be great after the initial weirdness, right? I mean, if he's your best friend, it probably means that you'll do well together whether online or not," Dan consoled.  
"Yeah... I guess you're right. Maybe I should call you with relationship advice more often," he said, cheery again.  
"Wow, I don't know about that. I don't think I'm really a person for that type of thing. I mean, Zoe does."  
"Yeah, but you had a logical answer. I've talked to her about it and she just said "you love him, he loves you, it'll be fine". I mean it's great to hear but really, your answer helped more."  
"What is even happening right now?" Dan asked incredulously.  
"You are giving better advice to a gay boy than a love expert," Troye answered, and Dan could practically hear the smile on his face.  
"Yeah, that's what I was worried about."  
  
Turns out that wasn't the most of his worries. It was Wednesday, and it was almost time for his audition. Troye was sitting beside him as they waited for the people in front to be done. They were in the hallway, leaning their backs against the wall.  
"I don't know if I can do this..." He muttered as he read over the monologue yet again.  
"You'll do fine, Dan." Troye said reassuringly. "If anything, you are definitely better than some of the kids here. Like the ones who just wanted an easy class."  
Dan nodded, then muttered the lines again under his breath.  
"Troye Mellet," a voice called.  
"Good luck," Dan said as Troye stood and went into the room.  
He repeated the lines over and over again until he was called in. He wiped his hands on his jeans as he walked through the door. Mrs. Bennett and two other adults he'd never seen before sat in the front row. He walked up to the small stage and waited for one of them to say something.  
"Whenever you're ready," Mrs. Bennett said, writing on a sheet of paper.  
He took a breath and began the monologue.  
"Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay."  
The words came easier as he went on, flowing out like the lyrics of a song. He forgot his nerves and the teachers.  
"This is the truth, or let Benvolio die," he finished.  
He stood there for a moment as they took their notes. Mrs. Bennett looked up at him and smiled.  
"Thank you, you may go."  
  
 _What did that mean? Was it bad? It didn't sound good._  
"Nah, she doesn't like to give anything away during auditions." Troye reassured him as they walked towards the courtyard. Phil had already gone home, so he'd be walking alone today. The school was quieter than he'd seen; it was just him and Troye.  
"So it didn't mean I did horribly?"  
"Not at all. You won't know what it meant until you see the callback sheet," Troye explained.  
Dan nodded, sighing a breath of slight relief.  
"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. What I would worry about is what you are going to wear to Zoe's Halloween party," Troye continued.  
Dan furrowed his brows, "Halloween party?"  
"She hasn't told you about it yet?"  
Dan shook his head.  
"Well, she's still planning the list. I don't think she's actually invited anyone yet, I'm just helping her plan it. Don't worry, you're one of the first on the guest list."  
"Okaaaay..."  
"So now that you know about the party, you need to find a costume. And let me just say that Zoe is inviting Phil too. Oh my god, what if you wore matching costumes?!"  
"Yeah, I don't think so," Dan said, looking over at Troye with a 'what the hell' look.  
"Hey, just throwing ideas out. It would be cute though."  
Dan shook his head, trying not to smile.  
"Like you both like Pokémon, you could be Ash and Pikachu!"  
Dan let out a noise of shock, then covered it up with a cough as Troye broke out into laughter.  
"Go home you freak," Dan said, now also laughing it off.  
"Fine, but I bet you imagined it," Troye said cheekily as he walked off towards where his mum was waiting on the side of the road by the school.  
"Shut up!" Dan shouted back, waving as Troye left. He laughed to himself as he walked.  
 _Troye did have a point. And would it be that weird to have matching costumes? Well, considering what it was, it could. Trainer and Pokémon is usually a couple costume, maybe it would be too weird to ask. It would probably be best not to mention it. Maybe he could suggest it as a joke and Phil would agree or just laugh at the idea, and it wouldn't be as weird._  
"Stop it, Dan..." He said aloud to himself.  



	4. Planning Time

  
Four weeks later, Dan was sitting with Zoe and Troye before school. Phil was home sick, and Louise was helping the set directors plan the set for the play.  
"So, have you thought about your costume?" Zoe asked Dan.  
"A little. Troye still wants me and Phil to do a couple's costume, but I still think it would be weird to ask."  
"I think it'd be cute! But I understand it would be awkward since you aren't actually a thing."  
"Wow, way to hit him with reality," Troye muttered in a fake angry tone.  
"Whatever. I don't know, I'll probably do something pretty simple."  
"Alright, fair enough. What about you?" Zoe nudged Troye's arm with her elbow.  
"I have a few ideas, but I haven't chosen yet. And I'm not telling until later."  
"Why not?" Zoe asked incredulously.  
"It's a surprise," Troye said simply.  
"You have no idea what you're gonna do," Dan said, grinning.  
"Not a clue," Troye said, slowly drawing out the words.  
"You better hurry and figure something out, it's next week!" Zoe said, exasperated.  
"Wait, what is today?" Dan asked.  
"October 24th, where have you been?" Troye answered.  
"I dunno, lost track of time I guess. Wow, okay."  
"Boys," Zoe rolled her eyes. "But exciting news, Troye. Janya and Narcus are definitely coming!"  
Dan looked at her, confused. "More ship names?"  
"Yep, Jim and Tanya, Niomi and Marcus. They live in the city so they don't go here." Troye explained, "It'll be nice to see them again. I bet Tyler will be jealous, he thinks Marcus is hot. And really, I can't even be jealous because he is."  
Dan laughed as Troye stared over-dramatically into the distance.  
"Jim was one of my best friends when we were younger, and we still keep in touch of course. And Tanya is his girlfriend, and she's lovely, I love her so much. Me and Louise sometimes invite her to sleepovers and we do each other's makeup and watch Disney movies." Zoe reminisced. "And Marcus is always fun to hang out with, and Niomi is fun and sweet too."  
"Better watch Marcus and Joe though, they'll be off causing trouble if you leave them alone together," Troye said.  
"Joe?" Dan asked.  
"Oh, I forgot! Joe is my brother; he's actually in your year." Zoe told him.  
"Oh, alright. I didn't know you had a brother."  
"I have two brothers," Troye added, "and a sister. Steele, Tyde, and Sage."  
"What about you, Dan?" Zoe asked. "Do you have any siblings?"  
"Yeah, my brother Adrian. He stayed behind in Wokingham with my dad when we moved though..."  
"Oh..."  
"Yeah..." Dan said awkwardly. "So... What time is practice tomorrow?"  
  
"Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget."  
"I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt."  
Troye and Dan walked off the stage in the auditorium, to where Zoe was waiting in the wing.  
"Not bad. You could look a little more heartbroken, Troye, as you talk about Rosaline rejecting you," she whispered.  
"Oh, woe is me that my fair lady doth not favor me," Troye whispered back dramatically, putting a hand over his heart and the other on his forehead like a Victorian lady.  
Dan and Zoe both stifled a laugh behind their hands.  
"Okay, that was a good run! Come back out, I have a few notes, then you can go to lunch." Mrs. Bennett called.  
They all walked out and met Louise in the seats.  
"Allen, try to speak up when you deliver lines, you need to be heard by everyone in this room. Dan, when you run out, you need to sound more worried. You are stopping a sword fight, speak with more urgency. And when you are speaking with Troye, interrupt him a little when you say "in love" and "of love", and like you are trying to stay cheery. He's upset, so you are trying to cheer him up."  
Dan nodded.  
"And that's it for now. You can go now. Back by 1!"  
Everyone stood and walked in various directions as they left. Dan followed Zoe as they went out.  
"You guys are lucky; you haven't had to do anything yet." Troye said to the girls.  
"I'm sure she's gonna make us run our scenes as soon as we get back," Louise said.  
"I can't wait until she makes the gay boy act straight," Dan said cheekily to Troye, who shot a bitchface back at him.  
"You guys wanna go to Nando's?" Zoe asked, stifling a giggle.  
They all agreed and started walking down the street until they reached the restaurant.  
"So, I've thought about it, and I decided I would be the stereotypical Australian for Halloween. I've gotten a whole costume that's kind of Indiana Jonesy, and a stuffed kangaroo, a boomerang." Troye said after they ordered.  
"Oh, that's adorable! I'm going to be a fairy princess, as stereotypical as that sounds," Louise said.  
"I decided I could pull off vampire queen," Zoe added.  
"Dan?" Troye said, looking expectantly at him.  
"Alright, alright. I have talked with Phil about costumes, and he thought we should do an animal theme." Dan said carefully. Troye still freaked out a little.  
"So you are doing matching costumes!"  
"Kinda. I guess. Maybe. I don't know. We are throwing them together pretty last minute, but we're doing cat and bear."  
Troye smushed his face in excitement. "That. Is. So. Cute."  
Dan tried not to blush as they all aww'd at him. "It's not that big a deal," he muttered.  
"Mhm," Troye hummed as if he were giving Dan the benefit of doubt.  
Dan shook his head, looking up and around the restaurant.  
"And what about your love life, Zo? I heard you invited Alfieee," Louise interrupted the silence in a singsong voice.  
"Yeah, I thought it would be nice to," Zoe replied casually, although Dan was sure both the others also noticed the blush on her face.  
"Mhm. You're just as bad as Dan." Troye looked back over at Dan, "Well, almost."  
Dan rolled his eyes.  
"Oh, imagine if they all got together at the party," Louise giggled to Troye, who smiled in an almost sinister way.  
"Oh yes, imagine if we happened to play Spin the Bottle or Truth or Dare and they got to kiss their crushes," Troye looked from Dan to Zoe.  
"Troye, no!" _Zoe didn't sound too against the idea though._  
"I'm just saying..."  
"I'll think about it." Zoe paused. "But if we do play either, play fair and don't try to rig anything."  
"Wouldn't dream of it," Troye said sarcastically.


	5. Halloween

"Oh, look how CUTE!" Zoe shrieked when she saw Dan and Phil at the door, the party only beginning to start behind her.  
Dan wasn't kidding when he said they'd be throwing costumes together. Half of it was their regular clothes, as both of them were wearing jeans and trainers. Phil was wearing a plaid jacket over a black shirt. Dan had gotten a weird fur hoodie that had ears on the hood when he put it up. Phil was wearing a cat ear headband, and both of them had whiskers drawn with sharpie on their faces.  
"It was pretty last minute," Dan said sheepishly as they followed her inside.  
"Then it's a good thing both of you are so cute," Troye interjected from the kitchen.  
"Is it Cas?" A voice called from the room they were heading into.  
"No, Caspar isn't coming for another twenty minutes!" Zoe called back as they walked in.  
They heard the voice curse under his breath, and walking in, Dan saw that it was a tiny blonde boy. _Wow, he was seriously small._  
"Dan, Phil, this is my brother Joe," Zoe introduced.  
Dan waved awkwardly and Phil greeted him.  
"Zoe hasn't stopped talking about you two since she made friends with you," Joe remarked.  
Dan laughed awkwardly, knowing exactly what he might be talking about. _Did they all have to ship him and Phil?_  
The doorbell rang before Zoe could say anything against it. They sat a little awkwardly with Joe as she went to answer the door. A few moments later, shrieks of joy were heard from the door.  
"ZOE!"  
"TAN!! Oh, Jim, I've missed you both so much!"  
Dan looked over at Phil, who was trying not to smile. One look at Dan though, and they were both laughing, drowned out a little by the new shrieks. Seemed Louise was here. Troye walked into the room, widening his eyes dramatically at them as the girls quieted down and walked in.  
"Hello Joe!" The new girl said sweetly.  
"Tan, this is Dan and Phil," Zoe pointed both of them out to her. "This is Tanya and Jim is coming in."  
"Hello," Jim said, waving.  
If Dan was completely honest, he felt a little out of place. _Literally all of the people in the room looked so much cooler than him. Not even costume wise, just in general. Although the costumes were cool too._ Zoe was wearing an old fashioned dress and had done her hair up in a fancy manner that would make Iggy Azalea jealous, Troye had his Aussie costume. Louise had a pink ball gown-like dress with wings and tiara, Joe had a vampire costume paralleling Zoe's, complete with cape. Jim and Tanya had Beast and Belle costumes. _Compared to them, Dan's costume really sucked. At least Phil looked cool in the "barely trying" way; Dan didn't even have that factor._  
"Stop overthinking things," he muttered to himself, under his breath.  
  
After the initial awkwardness, as more people showed up, the less weird it was. Soon the radio was blasting almost full volume in the living room, and people were talking and eating and dancing everywhere. Dan and Phil had taken an almost permanent seat near the table of food, where the music wasn't so loud.  
"Who do you think, of all of us, would win the Hunger Games?" Phil asked in an intense voice.  
Dan laughed, "Well, I think Louise would run as soon as it started. I would probably just explode as soon as it started, so I'm out."  
"Damn, you shouldn't have stepped off the platform early. I could've had an ally!" Phil said in a fakely disappointed voice.  
"Yeah whatever, you would try to get food from the Cornucopia and die, so you are out too."  
"Aww..."  
"I feel like Zoe would either run and cry or go straight into battle and kill everyone. Troye would last a while because he's Australian. The lack of Internet and Nutella would kill him though. So if I'm completely honest, it would probably be Zoe or Louise by luck."  
Phil laughed, and Dan couldn't keep the huge smile off of his face. _It was like Phil's happiness was infectious, spreading warmth and happiness through his body._ _'Did that sound weird?'_ he thought to himself.  
"What would happen if we both made it though, and we had to do what Katniss and Peeta did?" Phil then asked in the same intense questioning voice.  
"We would have to almost eat poisonous berries, win the Hunger Games, act like we are in love for the rest of our lives, maybe start a revolution on accident and really fall in love." Dan said, a serious tone in his voice.  
Phil smiled, but it seemed shyer this time. Dan blinked, wondering if Phil had taken what he said seriously... _And if he was okay with it. If he was more than okay with- no_. He mentally shook his head, trying to think of something to say. Phil was just looking at the floor now, looking in thought.  
"I wonder who would be your Gale in that situation," Phil said, a little quieter than before.  
"Oh so I'm Katniss?"  
Phil smiled, looking back up at him, "it's kinda the whole "I've got no one else, you do" thing."  
"Wow, way to be depressing." The way Dan said it wasn't even sarcastic.  
"You seem pretty close to Troye." Phil was looking back at the floor.  
 _Was this leading where Dan thought it might?_  
"I mean, it doesn't matter, you know, but I kinda wonder... Are you..."  
"Me and Troye? No! I mean he's great and all, but he has an almost boyfriend. Plus, he's not exactly my type." Dan said quickly, then carefully.  
"Oh, okay," Phil sounded cheerier, or maybe it was in Dan's head. "So what would your type be?"  
"I don't know... He'd at least have to be someone I had a remote chance with. Someone who I can talk to at two am about stupid things. Wouldn't hurt if he was cute. I like blue eyes..."  
The room seemed quieter. Dan could barely even hear the music blaring in the background. _It was just Phil and his god damn gorgeous blue eyes. He looked so cute with the cat whiskers._ He noticed how close they had been sitting the whole time. His leg was pressed against Phil's and it was suddenly the only thing he could think of.He couldn't even tell himself to stop, it was like his mind had let go of its restraint. _Was Phil getting closer? He could swear he was._ His lips were parted slightly, and the pinkness of them was driving Dan crazy. He could feel Phil's breath on his face now. His eyes fluttered shut as Phil's lips crashed against his. Phil's hands cupped the sides of his face, and Dan felt himself melt into the touch. He wrapped his arms around Phil's waist, finding his way onto the older boy's lap. Dan didn't think about what anyone would say if they walked in now. All he could think about was _how soft Phil's skin was, how he tasted like the chocolate they'd been snacking on for the last hour, every breath Phil took. This was the moment he'd wanted since he'd met Phil all those weeks ago, nothing would ruin it._ __  
It seemed over too soon. As they broke apart, Dan opened his eyes to meet Phil's gaze. Neither of them said anything. Phil's hands slowly dropped down from Dan's face and to his waist.  
"Looks like we didn't even need to rig Spin the Bottle." Troye said from the doorway, startling both of them. Louise was slyly putting away her phone from beside him.

 


	6. Troye's a Hardcore Shipper

Dan couldn't stop blushing for twenty full minutes afterwards, and Phil seemed more giggly than usual. Troye looked almost like a proud dad as he sat next to them with Louise.  
"One couple down, now we just have to get Zalfie together."  
"Don't rig Spin the Bottle, Zoe'll kill you," Dan advised.  
"True..." Troye pondered.  
"Maybe Truth or Dare, but we can't be completely obvious about it." Louise suggested.  
"Don't dare them to kiss or anything, and not right off," Phil added.  
Troye nodded, lost in thought.  
Dan thought for a moment too. _Zoe wouldn't want it to be forced. And Alfie didn't seem like the type to really want to be playing Truth or Dare. But he also knew Troye wouldn't be satisfied unless something happened, even if it was just them talking._  
"Wait a second."  
Troye looked over to Dan, snapping out of his trance.  
"Why don't we just let them talk to each other?"  
Troye furrowed his brows in confusion.  
"Because I think that forcing it like that would probably make it awkward for them and then nothing will happen. But if we make them actually talk to each other, it wouldn't be, right?"  
"... You've got a point..."  
"But how are we gonna do that?" Louise asked.  
".... I'll be right back."  
Dan got up from beside Phil and walked past them and out the door. He heard Troye and Louise get up to watch him. He looked around to where Alfie was standing alone by the wall in the living room, watching everyone else talk and dance. He walked over to him and said hi.  
"Hey, Dan, right? You're in my English class." Alfie said.  
"Yeah. What are you doing standing by the wall?"  
Alfie shrugged, "I don't really know anyone. If I'm going to be honest, I only came because Zoe invited me."  
"Don't you kinda know her? Why don't you talk to her?" Dan said, faintly suggestively.  
Alfie looked at the ground and shrugged again, "I dunno, she probably wouldn't want to. I mean, she's having fun." He looked back up to where Zoe and Tanya where dancing.  
"Well, as her friend, I know she wouldn't mind. I think you should, go join in on the fun instead of watching it." Dan said, nudging his arm.  
Alfie looked in thought for a moment, then Dan saw determination cross his face.  
Dan walked back over to where Troye, Louise, and Phil were all standing at the doorway, totally inconspicuously, watching as Alfie moved away from the wall and to Zoe. He gave Troye a smirk as Zoe and Alfie walked out onto the porch together. Troye high-fived him, jumping up in victory like he'd won every prize imaginable. Louise squealed in excitement with him as Dan and Phil laughed at the two.  
"Now you can stop being such weirdoes about all of us," Dan said to Troye.  
Troye waved him away, still grinning hugely. He not-so-slyly crept towards the window that looked out at the porch and peeked out of it.  
"Awww, they're so cute! Get it, Zoe!" He cheered quietly.  
Dan rolled his eyes and went over, dragging the smaller boy away from the window.  
"Come on, stop being a creep. Why don't you go and dance some more instead of stalking them?"  
"Are you and Phil gonna make out again?" Troye asked in a childish voice, giggling.  
"No, we'll be talking about how you'd die in the Hunger Games probably."  
".... How would I-"  
"Lack of internet and Nutella, now go turn up to One Direction," Dan said in a serious voice, breaking into laughter a second later.  
Troye ran off with Louise, both singing along with the music loudly.  
Dan sat back down with Phil, sighing as Phil laughed quietly.  
"That was something," he said, smiling at Dan.  
Dan nodded in agreement, slowly settling against Phil. The older boy wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled his head into his neck.  
"If I'd known you'd be so affectionate, I'd have kissed you sooner," Dan laughed.  
"I kissed you," Phil corrected, his breath tickling the back of Dan's neck, making him squirm, which only made Phil laugh more.  
"Shut up, and stop that!" Dan giggled, squirming around.  
Phil obliged, burying his face into Dan's shoulder again. Dan rested against him, listening to the chatter and music coming from the other room. He could still hear Troye belting out One Thing with Louise.  
 _He realized he didn't really care about going out there and fitting in with everyone else anymore. Since he started school he'd try to fit in, but he felt like something changed. And he supposed it did. Two months ago he never would've guessed he'd be sitting at a party with a cute guy who happened to be his best friend and probably his boyfriend at that point, helping his other friends with their love lives. In almost two months, his entire life changed. And as he sat in silence with Phil holding him, he didn't mind at all._


	7. It's Not All a Walk in the Park

The next day, Dan woke up to a continuous series of beeps alerting him of messages. He rolled over and looked at his phone. _Big surprise_ , Troye was blowing up his phone. He unlocked it and started scrolling through them.  
 **Troye: 'Dan'**  
Troye: 'Dan omg'  
Troye: 'Omg Dan wake up'  
Troye: 'Daaaaannn'  
Troye: 'I’m gonna keep messaging you until you wake up'  
Troye: 'There’s news'  
Troye: 'Exciting important news'  
Troye: 'Dan wake up'  
Troye: 'Zalfie'  
Troye: 'There's Zalfie news'  
Dan stopped reading the new ones Troye was sending him and replied:  
 **Dan: 'Jeez, I'm awake. What's going on?'**  
 **Troye: 'ZALFIE'**  
 **Dan: 'What about Zalfie? Did they get together last night?'**  
Troye: ';)'  
Troye: 'Well kinda'  
Troye: ‘they aren't really dating yet, but they are going to see a movie together tomorrow so it's a date'  
Dan: 'good for them'  
Troye: 'And what about Phan? Are you guys officially dating?'  
Dan: 'Idk, but I guess so'  
Troye didn't respond immediately.  
 **Troye: 'Ship sailed'**  
Dan: 'you’re a nerd’  
Dan clicked his phone off and laid on his bed, staring at his ceiling. As he thought about the previous night, his heart seemed to beat faster in his chest. He closed his eyes and he could see Phil's eyes in his mind again. _They weren't all blue like he thought. Up close they were an array of colors, blue and green and even yellow, deep and beautiful like the ocean_. He opened his eyes. He felt like a teenage girl daydreaming about their first crush... He guessed it actually wasn't that different.  
His phone beeped again.  
 **Troye: 'I'm bored...'**  
Troye: 'Wanna go do something?'  
Dan: 'sure, what do you have in mind?'  
Troye: 'we could go to the park or something and talk about our boys ;)'  
Dan smiled at his phone as he answered.  
 **Dan: 'sure, meet you there in 15 minutes?'**  
 **Troye: 'see ya in 15'**  
  
Dan walked slowly, just enjoying the sight of the road. It was like one of those hipster photos you'd find on Tumblr, minus the filter. Dark leaves covered the empty road, and the trees were left with the few golden leaves left of autumn clinging on. Sunlight shone gently through the trees onto the road. Dan figured he wouldn't see a sight like this again for a while; it would be winter soon, and he probably won't be going out at this time of day again. When he reached the park, he saw Troye sitting under an oak tree, fiddling with the leaves on the ground. Troye looked up as Dan walked closer, leaves crunching underneath his shoes. Dan sat next to him, but Troye still didn't say anything.  
"Are you alright?" Dan asked, concern on his face.  
Troye shrugged, "it's nothing really... Well, I mean I guess it is, but-"  
"What happened?"  
Troye fiddled with the leaf for a moment longer before saying: "Tyler has gotten a boyfriend," his voice rose slightly as he continued, "he's told me all about this guy a grade above him, who is really athletic and muscular and _dreamy_. I mean, I'm just glad he was texting me that instead of Skyping because I wouldn't have been able to act happy for him, and I feel awful for not being happy for him and being super jealous and- and..."  
Dan felt his heart ache a little as Troye sighed, shutting his eyes tight to stop tears. He awkwardly hugged him, but Troye didn't seem to mind the awkwardness, although it did seem to make him lose it. It felt like five minutes they stayed like that, Dan trying to comfort Troye as he cried. Finally Troye drew away, wiping his eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to cry all over you. He texted me while I was on my way here, and I was going to just ignore it but... I dunno..."  
"It's alright, I guess I get that. But you know, and I wouldn't recommend getting hooked on the idea, but it may not last."  
Troye nodded after a second. "Yeah, I suppose... I guess I should be happy for him anyways. I mean, he's my best friend."  
Dan thought about the idea. _What if the party never happened and Phil got a boyfriend, oblivious to his feelings?_ He realized how much Troye much be hurting.  
"And it's not like you have to act happy for him every day all the time. Just when you're talking to him. That probably doesn't really help."  
Troye laughed, "well, at least I was coming to meet you. Otherwise I would've been crying into my pillow."  
"Awww.." Dan said sadly, with a somewhat exaggerated face.  
Troye grinned, then looked back at the leaves. "You think we can make a big enough pile to jump in?"  
"Maybe for you, shorty," Dan teased, getting up.  
Troye ignored the comment, starting to pile leaves on each other. Dan grabbed a handful of leaves and dramatically threw them onto the pile. Actually, it landed on Troye, _but hey, he was sitting right there_. Troye grabbed the small pile and threw it at Dan, but they fluttered harmlessly back to the ground as Dan laughed.  
"I can't wait until it's snowing and I can throw snow at you," Troye muttered as he stood up.  
"We could get Phil, Louise, Zoe, maybe Alfie, and we could have a big snowball fight." Dan said.  
Troye grinned excitedly, "that would be so cool! So I'll get you back then."  
"Yeah, whatever," Dan said sarcastically.  
Troye pursed his lips. "Actually, it's really pretty today. Want to walk around?"  
"Sure."  
  
Ten minutes into the walk, they past a couple of girls, who started frantically whispering to each other as they past. Dan didn't think much of it, they probably just thought Troye was cute. What he didn't expect was for them to run up behind them.  
"Are you Troye Sivan?" One of the girls asked.  
Troye smiled sheepishly, "yeah, hi!"  
Dan stared, bewildered, as both the girls asked for a photo with him. He stared after them as they left, squealing at each other. Troye still looked sheepish as Dan looked, wide-eyed, back at him.  
"I thought your last name was Mellet," was the only logical thought he could form.  
"It is, but my middle name is Sivan."  
"Okaaaayyy..... So, uh, why did they- how did they know who you were?"  
"I have a YouTube channel where I post covers of songs, it's not that big of a deal really. See, I go by Troye Sivan there."  
"Really? Actually, that's really cool."  
"Thanks," Troye said, grinning. "Although I recently started vlogging. Not much, but I don't know."  
"How many subscribers do you have?"  
"Almost a million."  
Had Dan been drinking anything, he would have spat it out in that moment. "You are Internet famous and you didn't tell me?" he said, gaping.  
Troye shrugged, "I tend to not let it into my real life. I mean, who knows, maybe I'll do it for real when I'm out of school, but really it's just a thing that I like to do when I have nothing to do."  
"That sounds cool... I wonder if I could be a Youtuber... It sounds like it could be pretty fun."  
Troye nodded, "Zoe and Louise have both thought about starting beauty blog channels. I don't know, I don't think that's very you though." he teased.  
Dan rolled his eyes. "I'd probably just make random videos of me talking about things."  
"That's what a lot of vloggers do."  
  
When Dan got home, the first thing he did, after getting food of course, was open his laptop and go to YouTube. He typed "Troye Sivan" into the search bar. Pages upon pages turned up. He clicked the first one, and Troye was there on his screen, in front of a dark room with Christmas lights. He listened as Troye began singing, and he had to admit, he was impressed.  
Hours later, as he was watching Troye pretending to be different social media sites, he realized it was almost 2 in the morning. He finished the video, then closed his laptop. _Things like that one, why could he make videos?_


	8. Fluffy, like a Kitten

With all of the things going on, Dan had no time to even think about YouTube again. Rehearsals were every other day, he was swamped with homework when he wasn't practicing or memorizing lines, and he was still trying to find time to talk to his friends. For some reason, as he was trying to solve an equation, he realized he'd never seen Chris or PJ out of school. _Maybe he'd invite them over sometime_. He shook his head. Focus.  
  
It was a week before the play when all of his teachers decided it would be a great time to plan for _literally EVERY test_. He was trying to cram as much information into his brain as possible as he sat on Phil's bed. Every so often Dan would find himself muttering Shakespeare instead of math. Phil sat beside him, also going over notes, but every so often he would smile at Dan, and it would help Dan get along another ten minutes without imploding. After two hours of this, Dan shoved his textbook onto the floor, making Phil jump beside him. He rolled over and shoved his face into Phil's pillow, feeling a little dead inside really. He felt Phil move a little and began to relax and Phil ran his hand up and down Dan's back. Dan put his head up a little so he could speak without being muffled by pillow.  
"I hate exams... And at this point, I can't remember a single line from the play and my brain has melted in my skull and my entire soul feels dead," Dan said in a monotonous ranting sarcasm.  
Phil laughed a little, before lying down next to Dan and practically squishing the shorter boy as he hugged him. "Look on the bright side; at least in a couple weeks it'll be Christmas. And I know you promised Troye a snowball fight in the park, and I fully intend to join in, by the way."  
Dan stared affectionately at Phil, leaning his head onto Phil.  
"Of course. Louise can join, and Zalfie of course. Maybe I could invite Chris and PJ too."  
"That sounds fun," Phil mused as he adjusted the both of them so they were sitting back up, with Dan curled up like a kitten on Phil's lap. His arms wrapped around Dan, as if protecting him from the anxiety that threatened to attack. Dan relaxed into Phil, sighing contentedly. They sat in silence, with Dan thinking about exams and the play and the snowball fight as Phil stroked his hair repetitively. It was soothing, and he could swear he could feel Phil humming something softly. It was like he was lying on a giant purring cat. Soon, the thoughts drifted away.  
  
The sun was setting when he opened his eyes. They were lying down now, and Phil was asleep too, with all of his books moved to the floor as well. Now he was clinging to Dan like an octopus, and while Dan found it cute and endearing, he also realized he had to get home. He knew how heavy a sleeper Phil was, so he was forced to wriggle himself free of Phil's limbs. Once free, he picked up his books and put them back in his bag. After a second thought, he scribbled a note to Phil saying he'd gone home and left it on the nightstand. Another afterthought and he pulled the duvet out from under Phil and put it over him. He bent down and kissed Phil's hair, realizing how sappy and cliché he looked. _Oh well, call him sappy, he kinda was._ He flicked the light off and closed the door behind him as he left. What he didn't see was Phil's smile as the door clicked shut.  
  
When he got home, he decided it would be better to just turn in for the night instead of attempting to study and have a breakdown without Phil to calm him.  
As he lay in the dark, he wished he hadn't left. But he could swear he still felt Phil's warmth from here as he finally fell asleep.


	9. Stage Fright and Loneliness

_I can't do this._  
  
Dan was staring at his old fashioned costume in absolute terror. _He had been fine yesterday, but of course yesterday there hadn't been at least a hundred people out in the audience. He couldn't do this. He couldn't go out there. He couldn't even remember his lines; they were jumbled together with equations and vocabulary terms._  
  
Troye was walking through the backstage room, looking at all the costumes, when he saw Dan standing alone in the corner, looking like he'd just seen someone die in front of him. He took a quick glance over the room and spotted Zoe. He waved her over with urgency. She half ran over, holding up her skirt.  
"I think Dan's got stage fright. It looks bad." Troye whispered to her.  
She looked over at Dan and frowned, "I'll go find Phil. He should be able to calm him down."  
"Good thinking, I'll go see what I can do 'til he gets here." Troye said as he made his way over to Dan, hearing Zoe's character shoes clicking behind him as she ran outside.  
"Hey Dan, are you alright?"  
Dan stared up at him, blinking in confusion a couple of times.  
"Oh Troye, hi. Uh, er, yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Dan muttered.  
"You don't look fine," Troye said, taking Dan's hand to comfort him. "Oh my god, Dan, you're shaking like crazy!"  
"Am I?" Dan asked weakly.  
"Dan, are you alright? Like seriously, you kinda look like you're going to faint."  
"I don't think I can do this." Dan said in a whisper, not looking at Troye.  
"You've done great every other time, you can do this!"  
"But there's people there tonight. They will all be watching me and I can't even remember my lines I'm so nervous, I'm going to freeze or fall on my face or-"  
"Dan!"  
Troye sighed in relief as Phil ran to them, letting him take over. _Maybe he could get those thoughts out of his head._  
Phil pulled Dan into a hug, kissing his hair. Even in the situation, Troye smiled at the cuteness of the two.  
"Listen, Dan, you'll be fine."  
"But all those people-"  
"Pretend they aren't there. My mum has a seat saved for me in the front row, just look at me when you have to. And Troye will be there with you almost every other time. It's just us, okay?"  
Dan nodded like he was a child. Troye couldn't even handle this, suppressing a squeal. _Even if his love life doesn't work out, who says he couldn't be happy for his friends and theirs? He wouldn't be the bitterly jealous friend... Although he couldn't help the slight twinge when the two shared an affectionate look before Phil kissed his forehead. Even if Tyler was single, and even if they got together, he still wouldn't get that. Maybe it'd be best if he moved on..._  
Someone shouted from the door, telling them it was almost curtain call. Phil waved and sent a smile of nothing other than a supportive boyfriend, and Troye managed the suppress the twinge of jealousy this time. He smiled at Dan as they prepared to go on.  
  
As Dan went on stage for the first time, Troye began to worry. He was fine at first, caught in the banter and swordplay of the scene, but as it turned to nothing but talking, Troye noticed Dan falter for a moment. He looked out into the audience and Troye would bet all the money he had that he locked eyes with Phil as he gained confidence and continued.  
Between his own scenes with Dan, Zoe, and Louise, he noted that Dan seemed calmer and even excited about it backstage. _It was actually kinda cute, watching his eyes light up in pride of what he'd done after his anxiety attack._ __  
When it came to final bows, Dan seemed to glow more than anyone else in the cast. He looked over at Zoe, and could tell she noticed too. She squeezed his hand, grinning.  
  
After he'd changed into his normal clothes and went out into the lobby, where the cast was meeting with their family and friends, he looked around to see all of his friends with someone. Dan was hugging Phil excitedly and tightly, like he'd just won 1st prize of something. Zoe was blushing as Alfie gave her a bundle of flowers, and she kissed his cheek. Even Louise was over by her boyfriend, Matt; a nice guy, Troye knew, but he honesty often forgot about him. He realized then... That he was alone. Of course not literally, as all of them at least waved goodbye to him as they left, although Zoe gave him a tight squeeze before taking off with Alfie in tow. No, he was alone in a different sense. Seeing all of his friends in happy relationships made him remember that he wasn't, as much as he'd begun to long for one. He walked out of the building, nodding his thanks whenever someone commented on his performance as he past. The night air was cool but not unpleasant as he shoved his hands in his pockets and started his walk home. _Maybe Tyler was made to be a friend, nothing more. Maybe it wasn't worth the inevitable pain to love someone who lived tens of thousands miles away from him. Maybe he should just move on._ __  
But he thought of the talks they had, the stupid conversations at 2 am about the most random crap. The way Tyler smiled really big and turned red when he was embarrassed. The way he was always trying to fix his ever-changing colored hair, and constantly pushing up his glasses. His stupid, adorable laugh and his flamboyant personality.  
Would he give it up to save himself the heartbreak? Should he just be content with what he gets and find someone else to be able to be all couple-y with?  
Troye sighed, closing his eyes. _No one would see the few tears that may have run down his face._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to change the POV for this chapter, surprise! I actually quite enjoyed writing from someone else's perspective, especially Troye's. I may do it later chapters, who knows? (also thanks for all of the positive feedback, it does help the motivation to continue :) )


	10. Snowfall

When Dan woke up, he found that he wasn't really waking up at all. He was just faintly aware of the warm body clinging to him, radiating like a heater on his skin. It felt nice... He wiggled closer to sap more heat greedily from the boy beside him, realizing it was Phil. Phil stirred and laid his head on Dan's chest, and Dan could see the smile on his face. Phil pretended to be asleep for a few more seconds while Dan stared at him, blinking up at Dan when he knew he was caught. Dan's heart seemed to catch in his throat as he played gently with Phil's hair. He realized they were in Phil's bedroom, and he stopped when his eyes landed on the window. Snowflakes were gently drifting over the frosted window, and Dan quickly jumped up, running over. Phil made a noise that somewhat sounded like a puppy whining because it's owner left. Dan laughed and stared out the window, wiping it with his sleeve. The entire ground was covered with a thick layer of compact snow. He guessed that was why it had turned so cold in the middle of the night. He jumped on the bed next to Phil, who was still whining at him. He grabbed his hand and began to attempt pulling him out of bed.  
"It snowed last night and there's so much and OH MY GOD SNOWBALL FIGHT!" Dan said in a not-so-quiet voice.  
Phil hung limply just to spite Dan, he swore. Suddenly, Phil turned it around on him, pulling Dan back down onto the bed and trapping him in his arms. Dan laughed as he tried to free himself, Phil smothering his face with little kisses. He stole his last kiss on Dan's lips, lingering for a moment and enjoying the silence.  
"You are lucky my mom left early this morning, cause you are entirely too loud for 8 in the morning." Phil said as he pulled away.  
Dan rolled his eyes in response, in fact he rolled his entire body away as Phil loosened his grip. He reached down and grabbed his phone, sending a text to Troye, Zoe, and Louise respectively. As an afterthought he texted Chris and PJ too. Then he got up and this time it was only with a little complaining that Phil followed.  
"You are going to freeze out there, even walking to your house," Phil noted, looking over Dan's outfit, or lack of one, as Dan pulled on his jeans.  
Dan shrugged, "At least I've got a long sleeve shirt."  
Phil rolled his eyes, "I don't know if that really counts as warm, Dan."  
Phil shuffled through his clothing for a moment before pulling out a jumper. It was dark blue, with a reindeer face smiling on it. He threw it at Dan and pulled out his own, similar but with a Christmas tree on it. Dan noticed there were more in the drawer and laughed to himself as he pulled the jumper on over his quite thin-he noticed- shirt. Of course Phil had a Christmas jumper collection. Dan noticed that the jumper hung loosely around his smaller frame, especially around his shoulders.  
"We are stopping by your house on the way to get you a hat and gloves," Phil stated as he pulled on his own hat.  
Dan smiled, reaching over and tugging at the strings as Phil fixed his fringe under it.  
"Come on, we have to get your ready for, I'm sure, a full day in the snow," Phil said, grabbing his hand and tugging him along.  
Dan could only smile at how lucky he was.  
  
After fitting Dan with his favorite fuzzy hat and a pair of gloves, the two made their way to the park, where they could already hear battle cries. As soon as they stepped foot in the park, Dan felt himself be bowled over by a smaller boy, hearing Troye's laughter overtake Phil's in his ear as he felt the chill of the snow on his back. Troye rolled off of him and Dan flicked snow at him.  
"Revenge for throwing leaves on me!" Troye laughed as Dan sat up in the snow.  
"I think this is hardly fair," Dan retorted, throwing a handful of snow at Troye, which he dodged as he ran away laughing. Phil stifled a giggle, offering his hand. Dan took it, but instead of pulling himself up, he pulled Phil down with him.  
"I should've expected that," Phil muttered as Dan grinned impishly at him and stole Phil's hat.  
Dan took a handful of snow and lightly sprinkled it over Phil's hair, adding to the snowflakes already gently residing in his ebony hair.  Phil lightly laughed, shaking his head.  
"Oi, lovebirds!" A very Northern accent that wasn't Phil's shouted at them.  
Dan looked up and saw PJ lightly swatting Chris with the hand that wasn't laced in Chris' own. He grinned as they walked over, Chris plopping into the snow while PJ took a little more care as he sat beside them.  
"Nice going, Romeo," Chris muttered to Dan, his eyes flicking over to Phil.  
"Actually, I was Benvolio," Dan said like the little shit he was.  
Both Phil and PJ tried to hide a smile by fixing their hair.  
"And you aren't subtle," he added to Phil, delighting in the pink his cheeks turned.  
"Ah, neither is mine, but what can ya do?" Chris said, an almost worshipful look in his eyes as he looked at PJ, who rolled his eyes with a smile.  
"You know, it's been a while since I've gotten to hang out with you guys. Maybe you could hang out with us at lunch or something, I'm sure the others wouldn't mind." Dan invited.  
"Nah, I think we both prefer being alone rather than a large group. I'm just glad to see new kid got the friends he wanted." PJ said.  
"Besides, I think it could get awkward with how frisky PJ can get," Chris said, a devilish grin on his face.  
"That's you!" PJ retorted quickly, although Dan didn't miss the red in his face.  
After a moment of slightly awkward silence, Chris leaned over and whispered something to PJ that frankly, Dan didn't want to know as PJ turned an even darker shade of red. They both stood up.  
"We're going to go for a walk. Maybe we'll see you later," Chris said smoothly, as if to make up for the slightly stiff way PJ was walking. Dan nodded slowly, not very confident that they'd return.  
"Yeah, have fun with that."  
"Oh, we will," Chris said with a wink as he followed his boyfriend.  
Phil was staring awkwardly at the ground.  
"Sorry you had to see that," Dan said as he scooted closer to Phil.  
The other boy shuttered dramatically, "I'm traumatized."  
Dan laughed, starting to roll snow around in front of him. He felt Phil lean on him, well, more like lay on him, his head sitting on Dan's shoulder and his arms wrapped around Dan's waist. He heard Louise squeal as one of Troye's snowballs hit her. Zoe soon fell dramatically into the snow as she succumbed to the same fate. Dan looked up to see Alfie avenging his fallen allies, actually managing to hit Troye in the shoulder with a snowball. The ball Dan had rolled was growing too big to throw, and he kept rolling until it was about as big as his head. Then he rolled another, slightly smaller, and he heard Phil's laugh in his ear as he realized what Dan was doing. After rolling a third, he stacked them together. He dug through the snow, managing to find two soaked twigs. He stuck them into the tiny snowman as arms. He took his glove off and used his finger to draw in a little smiley face, then gently placed his hat onto it. It almost covered the top. Phil laughed, and Dan squirmed as his breath tickled his neck. He wiggled free, shivering from the contact with the back of his neck. Dan swore Phil only did it because he knew Dan didn't like it. Phil smirked at him and he knew it was true. He stuck his tongue out at him as he turned to face Phil. His breath caught as he stared at Phil. His hair was glistening from the wetness of the melted snowflakes, more of which had fallen into it. His face was flushed from the cold, and his eyes looked almost silver in the snow. He didn't even notice that he was reaching out until he noticed that his bare hand was cupping Phil's face. He reached up and kissed him, feeling Phil slowly twist his hands in Dan's hair.  
When they pulled apart, Dan settled back down into Phil's lap and rested his head against him. They fell into a comfortable silence as they watched their friends. Dan felt his entire being glow at the scene, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized I had almost completely left out Chris and PJ from the story after implying they'd be in it. Partially the reason is because originally it was going to be the Fantastic Foursome with Zoe and co. just a little on the side sometimes but then I put Troye in and he kinda changed the game. Oh well, I'll try to remember to put them in occasionally, but it may not be often. I guess I just don't click with them as much (partially because I haven't watched terribly many of their videos ~\•^•/~)


	11. Falling

Chapter 11  
  
"Oh my god, Troye, he took his shirt off in the football field today and he is RIPPED. It was heavenly, not even joking," Tyler said dreamily from Troye's laptop, not noticing the younger boy's tight smile.  
"Yeah, he... He sounds great..."  
Tyler did seem to snap out of it when he heard the barely-hidden dejection in his tone.  
"You okay? You sound kinda out of it."  
"Yeah, just a little tired... Long day, you know?"  
"Oh, okay. You know, I've been going on and on about Jake. What's your love life like?" Tyler said, leaning closer to the webcam.  
Troye shrugged, trying to ignore both the pang in his heart and the stab of fear. "Not much. Mainly I just hang out with Dan and Zoe really. Phil and Louise, sometimes Alfie, tag along too."  
"Wait, is Dan that twink guy in your profile pic on Facebook?" Tyler asked, leaning even closer in interest.  
"Yeah..." Troye said, imagining the look on Dan's face if he knew he'd just been called a twink with a smile.  
"Oooo, maybe you should get with him. You sure talk about him a lot, even in passing." Before Troye could respond, Tyler continued, "don't think I haven't noticed. I mean, he is pretty cute."  
"He's dating Phil," Troye said quickly, before Tyler said anything else.  
"Aw, too bad. At least you know if they ever break up, you have a shot."  
"Tyler!"  
"Your ship name could be Tran," Tyler added with an impish grin.  
Troye rolled his eyes, "yeah, whatever. I'm done talking to you."  
Tyler just laughed his giggly laugh and Troye sighed internally.  
"No seriously, it's like 1 in the morning and I'm sleepy," Troye said, to which Tyler scoffed and rolled his eyes in fake annoyance.  
"Fiiiineeee..." He drawled out before smiling at him at waving. "Good night!"  
"G'night."  
"Dubaiiiiii," Tyler said cheerfully as the Skype call ended.  
Troye closed his laptop and stared at the dark ceiling, illuminated only by the Christmas lights string on his headboard.  
 _Jake. He was always just talking about stupid, perfect Jake. If only he hadn't said Dan was dating Phil, maybe he could have tried to make Tyler jealous_. He doubted it, though. He sighed, thinking about all the boys Tyler had had crushes on. _They certainly weren't scrawny twinkish boys like he so obviously was. No, they were tall and muscular and manly._ Troye couldn't help but think of the time he let Zoe put makeup on him. _Face it, he just wasn't Tyler's type. Tyler had even been trying to push him onto Dan!_  
 _Although, not a bad choice_ , Troye thought. _If he hadn't had a crush on Tyler, he would've gone after Dan himself before he even met Phil._ He thought for a moment about where they'd be had he gotten somewhere with Dan. _Would he be the one cuddling him in the snow and comforting him before a show? Would he be taking him home and spending the night with him, not Phil? Would he be the one kissing him and feeling the love of his gaze?_  
 _No._  
 _Stop._  
He shook his head violently, sitting up with wide eyes as he realized what he had been thinking. But of every image he'd seen of them, he couldn't help but imagine himself in Phil's place. _Would they have traded places in Dan's life?_  
 _Or would he still have gone to Phil?_  
 _They went together like soulmates_ , Troye thought, realizing it sounded bitter in his mind.  
 _No._  
 _Stop, stop._  
 _He couldn't think of Dan like that, not when he was so happy with Phil. Why did Tyler have to say anything like that?_  
 _Would he still have come to this had he not said anything?_  
Thinking back through everything since that first day he saw Dan, he honestly wasn't sure.  
 _Wherever the fuck Cupid was_ , Troye thought, _I'm gonna kill him if I see him again_. He picked up his pillow and muffled his scream in it.  
 _Was this his life? To fall in love with his unobtainable best friends?_  
 _No._  
 _He wasn't going to fall in love with Dan Howell. He could handle one unrequited crush on Tyler because Tyler could never see it. But he saw Dan every day, and with Phil half the time. He didn't have a crush on Dan, he was just lonely and he was maybe a little jealous of his boyfriend. He could admit that much. But he wouldn't think about Dan like that. He wouldn't fall for Dan._  
  
 _Well of course Dan had to ruin that self-made promise_. The very next day, Troye went for a walk to try and clear his mind, but _of-fucking-course_ Dan was sitting under that big oak tree in the park. _The same one where he'd been crying over Tyler and Dan had hugged him and teased him and-_  
 _Stoooppp._  
 _Shit shit shit._ Dan looked over before Troye could turn around and make an escape. _He was wearing that hat again... It looked adorable_ and Troye felt a little piece of his soul wither away when Dan smiled over at him. He took a deep breath and smiled back as he walked over.  
"What are you doing? It's freezing out here and you're just sitting in the snow by yourself?" He asked, risking sitting next to him.  
Dan shrugged in response, "Phil went out of town yesterday with his family, so I was bored."  
"You could've called me," Troye suggested.  
 _Wait, why did he suggest that? He was techically trying to avoid Dan for the day. Look how well that went. Well, he was one of Dan's best friends..._  
"I know, but you said you were talking to Tyler last night, so I figured you were up pretty late since time zones. Thought I'd let you get your sleep, even if you don't let me get mine sometimes," Dan teased.  
 _God help him._  
"So what were you doing here?" Dan continued when Troye didn't.  
"Oh, I was just out for a walk. Just a short one, I should actually get back to it. I, uh, I have to go to the store and find something for my brother. First day of Hanukkah." He said quickly, trying not to sound desperate to get away.  
"Oh, I didn't know you were Jewish," Dan commented.  
"Yeah, whole family is. See ya," he said brightly so it didn't sound like he was mad at Dan or anything, getting up just slow enough to not be suspicious.  
 _Guess that was how Dan felt with Phil. Troye saw the irony in the entire situation and he didn't appreciate it._  
Dan waved at him as he walked off, feeling like every move was awkward as he felt Dan watching him. As soon as he was out of sight, he ran out of the park, ending up on the other side of the park where Dan and Phil both lived. He slowed back down to a walk, passing through the neighborhood, trying to ignore what had just happened. He tried to ignore the tears beginning to well up in his eyes, for Tyler, for Dan, for anger at himself and his heart wanting only people he couldn't have. He tried to ignore the thumping of his heart or the image of Dan smiling at him in the snow. He tried not to remember the day before when he had innocently knocked him into the snow, or the image of Dan kissing Phil. He tried to not think of Tyler, 4 million miles away, with his boyfriend. He tried not to think of how alone he really felt.  
But he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry ;_;
> 
> I promise Troye will have a happy ending


	12. Changes

If Troye was completely honest, he could easily spend the rest of the holiday by himself, definitely not thinking of Tyler or Dan. Zoe and Joe had gone back to their hometown of Bath for Christmas to visit family, and Alfie, who had somewhat become part of their little group already, was also on vacation with his family. Louise had come down with a bad case of the flu, so he obviously wasn't hanging out with her anytime soon. Phil had gone to Florida, so it was just him and Dan really. It weirded him out to think that Phil was currently closer, geographically speaking, to Tyler than he was. Yes, he was perfectly content to be alone.  
Unfortunately, Dan was not. Troye understood, since Dan had spent most of his life alone, he didn't want to anymore after finding people. But goddamn it, Troye was trying to forget this stupid crush he'd developed. _It was ridiculous. He had barely felt anything for Dan romantically only, what, two days ago? It was like he'd been bitten by a zombie. A Dan Howell-loving zombie._ Obviously the last thing he should do is go to Dan's house and be alone with him in his bedroom, even if it was just playing video games. So of course, he was walking into Dan's room.  
Dan was on his bed, laying on his stomach, tapping away on his phone. He didn't look up when Troye walked in, but Troye heard the sounds of Flappy Bird. He slowly walked over and sat next to him, watching as he tapped. He looked around his room, it was simple and... Quite emo-looking really. It fit Dan pretty well. Everything seemed to be gray and black, with the few brightly colored objects.  
He heard the thwack of Flappy dying, and then Dan rolled over to look at him.  
"Hey."  
Fuck, did he have to look at him like that? While LAYING LIKE THAT??  
Troye swallowed, "Hi.... So uh, what do you want to do? Er, play?"  
"Halo? I'm not really picky though," Dan said.  
Troye nodded, and Dan got up and put it in. Troye couldn't help but notice Dan's bright orange boxers... _Was that Japanese on the butt_? He tried to hide the giggle, but Dan still looked back at him. Troye looked away, but he couldn't hide the smile.  
"Nice boxers," he giggled.  
Dan turned a pretty shade of pink as he wiggled his black skinny jeans back up.  
"Shut up," he muttered as he sat back down, but he couldn't help but smile either.  
 _I'm in so much trouble right now_ , Troye thought.  
Time seemed to pass all too slowly, but it seemed over too fast. By the time it was time for Troye to leave, he didn't want to. As he walked out, he took a quick glance back at Dan, who smiled at him as their eyes met. He shot a weak smile back before leaving.  
As he walked through the park, he wanted to cry. He couldn't seem to suppress this growing feeling in his chest, even though he knew it was probably just because he was lonely and jealous, and Dan was cute. He could handle thinking that, he'd always thought that. But the hammering in his chest, feeling like he was literally being hit by a hammer, he couldn't.  
When he walked into his house, he found it quiet. There was a note on the kitchen table for him.  
"Troye, your siblings have all gone to their friend's house for sleepovers, and your father and I went out. Dinner's in the fridge, we won't be back til late. Love you, Mom"  
He put it back on the table. He wasn't really hungry. He just wished he could forget this whole thing.... Maybe he could...  
  
His throat burned from the taste. It wasn't pleasant and fun like everyone would have you believe. It felt more like he was drinking cleaning solution more than anything, but at this point he didn't care. The alcohol was numbing his mind, and while he wasn't able to see straight anymore, he also wasn't thinking about Dan or Tyler. After his third glass of whiskey, he thought he should stop. He didn't remember getting to his room, but he was suddenly on his bed with his phone in his hand. He felt himself sober up a little when he realized he'd already sent something.  
 **Troye: 'imd runk an i olve u'**  
 **Dan: 'are you home?'**  
 **Dan: 'Troye?'**  
 **Dan: 'don't do anything, I'm coming over'**  
 _Shitshitshitshitshit. Dan was coming._  
  
Dan was running, for the first time in his life it seemed. He didn't slow down to enjoy the pretty view of the park this time, trying to get to Troye before he did something stupid. He had no idea what exactly Troye had texted him, but he was able to gather that he was drunk.  
He knocked on the door with no answer. He tried the handle. It was unlocked. He went in, calling Troye's name. There was no answer, but Dan heard shuffling from the living room. He went in. There was an oddly Troye-sized lump on the couch, under a blanket. He pulled it back slowly.  
"Troye," Dan said softly.  
"I'm sorry," Troye slurred. "I didn't mean to text you."  
"Why are you drunk?" Dan asked gently, sitting next to him.  
Troye shrugged in response, not looking at Dan. Instead, he was staring off into nothing.  
Dan moved closer, saying again softly, "Troye.."  
Troye looked up at him. He didn't say anything, he just stared at him. Suddenly, he moved forward and crashed his lips against Dan's. Dan froze, eyes widening in shock as Troye pulled away quickly. Troye's eyes were as wide as his, and he quickly jumped up and ran, stumbling a little, out of the room.  
"I'm sorry!" He cried as Dan heard his bedroom door slam.  
 _Oh._  
Realization hit Dan like a brick. _  
"I'm drunk and I love you"_


	13. Changes pt 2

Dan couldn't move for a moment, staring at the spot Troye had been. The slam of the door seemed to echo in the empty house, snapping Dan out of it. No matter what had just happened, Troye obviously still needed help.  
"Troye..." He called through the door, rapping on it a few times.  
The only answer was Troye whispering, "I fucked up. I fucked up so bad. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."  
Dan tried a few more times, with nothing changing. He tried the door, but Troye had locked it. Troye had fallen silent. Sighing, Dan realized he may have fallen asleep. He left, deciding it would be better to resolve the whole thing when Troye was sober.  
Troye held his sob in until he heard the front door shut. Then he screamed and cried until his lungs burnt and his voice cut out.  
  
 **Dan: 'Troye'**  
 **Dan: 'we need to talk'**  
Troye felt his entire world crumble into dust when he read those messages when he woke up. He remembered everything, and his voice was still hurting for it.  
 **Troye: 'can't we just forget that happened?'**  
 **Dan: 'no'**  
Troye felt the dust of his crumbled world blow away. _Dan was going to hate him now. He wouldn't ever want to see him again._ Troye wouldn't blame him either...  
 **Dan: 'I can't help but to feel as if it had something to do with me. You've been off for a few days now, I've noticed.'**  
 **Troye: 'I didn't mean for it to...'**  
 **Dan: 'could you at least tell me what's going on?'**  
 **Troye: 'I dunno...'**  
Dan didn't reply immediately. Then Troye's phone went off, making his headache even worse. He quickly answered it, then immediately regretted it when Dan said, "So?"  
"Dan, I'm sorry..."  
"Troye, I don't want your apologies right now, I heard enough of them last night. I want to know what's the matter with you," Dan stated. He didn't sound happy, but he didn't sound mad either. It was more of a tone like his mother put on when he got a bad grade on a quiz, but with a touch of concern.  
Troye tried to think of what to say, but he realized that there was nothing to say but the full truth.  
"Well... Me and Tyler were Skyping a couple nights ago, you know... And he was going on and on about his boyfriend. Then we started talking about you for a minute and he was saying we should get together, and of course I wasn't taking it seriously, and I told him that too, but when we ended the call I started thinking and I don't know what happened but... I... I started wondering, I guess. I mean, you and Phil have been so in love, I guess I was jealous. And then when Tyler said that, I don't know, I started thinking about you, and I didn't mean to but it just kept happening, and then you kept looking so cute and I've been so conflicted about this whole thing because I know this crush I have on you isn't real and even if it was, you are dating Phil, and I do have a big crush on Tyler, but he's ten million miles away and has a boyfriend already." Troye knew he sounded hysterical, but he had to let out all of his feelings, even if it was to one of the only people he'd tried to hide them from. "And I wanted to forget," he said thickly, feeling the tears stinging his eyes, "and then I was drunk and somehow I texted you and then you came and... And you know the rest..."  
Dan didn't answer; Troye guessed he was trying to find a solution or even a response.  
"Troye... Why don't you just talk to Tyler?" He said finally.  
"No, it's the same situation as it was with you, isn't it? He has a boyfriend already. And honestly, I think I'd have a better chance with you than I would with him. He likes big manly men. One of which I am not."  
"Still. I mean, from the way you describe him, it doesn't seem like that would be something that breaks you up as friends, so even if it doesn't work out you don't have to worry. If you talk to him, you could find out that he secretly likes you back, and if not, at least you have the closure, and then you can really move on. I think it's mainly just that you're doubting yourself, really. You don't really want to move on because you wonder if there's a chance."  
Troye thought about it for a moment. He guessed Dan was right.  
"Okay, I guess I will...."  
"Good," Dan said simply.  
"So, uh.... About what happened last night... Is that going to make things awkward now? Are you mad at me?"  
"... No. I think you were just confused, it sounds like. Although, I may have realized just how you are younger than me." Dan said, putting on a teasing tone at the end to lighten the mood.  
"Hey! Only by a year..." Troye said, relief filling him.  
"But no, I think we'll just mark this down as something that didn't really happen and get back on with our lives."  
"Thanks," Troye said.  
As the call ended, Troye wasn't so sure he wanted to forget it. It was probably the worst night of his life and Dan seemed to be right about the closer, he wasn't feeling that guilt or terror anymore. But hell if he wanted to forget the softness of Dan's lips. After all, he had always found him cute.  
  
Troye prepared himself as Tyler appeared on the webcam.  
"Heyyy!" Tyler greeted cheerily.  
"Hi... So, uh, I have something to tell you..." Troye said seriously.  
Tyler leaned in, "Oooo, do tell."  
Troye opened his mouth to speak, when someone spoke on Tyler's end.  
"Hey, Ty, I'm gonna go," the voice said.  
"Okay babe," Tyler responded as an older boy, he looked 17 or 18, came into view to kiss him.  
The confidence Troye had to tell Tyler his feelings died within him. A few seconds later, when they'd pulled apart and Jake had left, Tyler looked back at the camera.  
"Sorry, what were you saying?" He asked.  
"I... I just wanted to say that you've missed a lot here."  
So instead of telling Tyler how he felt, he told him about his first time getting drunk and kissing Dan.  
 _Maybe seeing Tyler with Jake was all the closure he needed anyways..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I may have created a ship??? Tran didn't seem to be a thing and now you guys seem to like it???  
> maybe i'll write something for it that's a little happier after this is done xD
> 
> also no one has pointed out the (actually kinda accidental) parallel between two chapters... hint: (they share a chapter name)


	14. Returning to Normal?

A few weeks later, the group was all back together at school. Other than teachers assigning homework again, life was good again. Dan kept good on his word and it was like nothing had changed from before the break, even though Troye felt like a whole new person. _After those two calls, it was like he had let go of all of troubles and strife. He felt stronger for it now._  
"I can't believe she assigned an essay on the first day back!" Zoe was complaining as she read over the assignment at lunch.  
"My teacher was a little better about it, we only have to read an essay and write a paragraph or two about it," Phil commented.  
Zoe groaned while the rest of them laughed.  
"I'm just glad we don't have to do that," Troye said thankfully as he doodled on his math homework.  
"You will next year," Louise reminded him.  
It was Troye's turn to groan.  
"We had to talk about what we'd be doing after school. What universities we may be applying to and stuff," Louise continued.  
Dan fell silent, and after a moment of confusion, Troye realized why. _Phil was in his last year of secondary school too. Next year, Phil, Zoe, and Louise would all be gone._  
Phil seemed to realize that too, and squeezed Dan's hand.  
"I think I'll stay close by. There's the University of Manchester, I've been looking there." He said, mostly to Dan.  
Dan looked relieved. He had probably been thinking Phil would go somewhere far away and leave him. Troye knew better. He looked over at Zoe.  
"I've applied to an arts college in Wiltshire," she said, answering his silent question.  
He nodded slowly. _He realized how stupid his troubles sounded, when in only a year, he'd have to find his way in life._  
"Do you think you'll still be with Alfie when you leave?" Louise asked her.  
Zoe shrugged, "I hope so. I think it's one of those "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" type things."  
Troye felt a sinking in his heart. _What would any of them do alone?_  
  
"What do you think we'll do next year, when half of our group is gone?" Troye asked Dan the next time they were alone. Drama, since Zoe and Louise half volunteered to help with set for the non-required production.  
Dan shrugged, "I dunno. It'll be weird with them gone. I'm gonna miss everyone, but at least Phil will still be close by."  
"True... Dan, did you ever tell him that I-"  
"Kissed me? No. You were drunk and confused and before anything else, we don't need more drama because of it. It's in the past." Dan said seriously, taking in Troye's guilty look.  
"Thanks..."  
"It's what friends are for. Although I can't imagine Phil would really get pissed or anything." Dan said.  
"Maybe a little more protective of you," Troye suggested.  
"Yeah," Dan laughed.  
After a moment of silence, it was Dan's turn to ask, "How is the whole Tyler thing anyways?"  
Troye shrugged, "I guess I'm kinda over it. I mean, I still like him, but I haven't cried over him again."  
"That's good."  
"He's coming here." Troye said suddenly.  
"What?"  
"This summer. Tyler is coming to Manchester, he's going to be staying with us for a week or two."  
"I'll have to meet him," Dan said.  
"Of course, I'll be introducing him to everyone. He's already talked with Zoe before, but it'll be the first time he'll met us in real life."  
"Then I can't wait to meet this guy you've been so hung up over."  
 _You and me both, Dan_ , Troye thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the shortest chapter i've written so far, technically it's a filler tbh. but like an informational one. its a very important filler
> 
> also in February, i'm going to Playlist Live and i am planning on going to two meetups. can you guess who?  
> dan and phil and troye??? who would have guessed!
> 
> also yes, i think i did create a ship and wow you guys like it even tho it was just for the drama and angst. you sadists. but what does that make me??


	15. Tyler Comes to Manchester

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what a creative title +^+/*`*`*

The rest of the school year was just the daily routine of boring. It seemed to drag on forever, but finally summer came around and they were released from the confinements of homework and exams.  
Troye was now waiting in the airport, by baggage claim. He clutched to his phone as though it was his lifeline, waiting from a text or something from Tyler.  
Beep.  
 **Tyler: 'Just landed'**  
 **Troye: 'k I'm by baggage claim'**  
Troye looked anxiously at the crowd of people starting to come down the hall, his eyes darting through looking for a certain someone. There he was. His lavender hair certainly stood out, and he separated from the crowd to meet Troye. Both of them ran through the room, not caring if they looked like idiots, _like one of those slow motion beach scenes where they run into each other's arms. Except it was an airport and it wasn't slow motion. Actually they crashed into each other, but the feeling was the same._  
"Oh my gosh, this is actually happening!" Tyler said with excitement as they pulled away.  
Troye nodded, reaching over to fluff Tyler's hair. "I've always wanted to do that."  
"What the heck, you're so weird," Tyler teased. "Okay, but I thought you would be shorter."  
"Hey!"  
"No, really! Like you look like you're a tiny little guy, but you're almost taller than me!"  
They noticed the crowd had diminished around the conveyor belt with the luggage and went over to wait for Tyler's suitcase.  
"So, what did Jake think about you coming to a different country to stay with another guy?" Troye asked in a moment of silence, the curiosity killing him.  
"Oh, I'm done with him. That little bastard was making out with the cheer captain. But whatever, I'm over it."  
"Oh..." Troye had noticed he'd stopped talking about Jake, but he didn't let himself believe for a second they'd broken up for false hope.  
"Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you, by the way. You know, I figured you'd heard too much of him anyways."  
"Understatement," Troye muttered teasingly. Tyler giggled and pushed him in response.  
Tyler spotted his bag and grabbed it off the belt, then they left the airport.  
"So Zoe is driving us, but she went to get lunch real quick, so we may have to wait a minute." Troye said as they stopped on the curb.  
"Rude!"  
"She's getting you food too."  
"Oh, never mind then."  
After a few minutes of silence, Troye looked up at Tyler, only to find that the other boy was staring at him.  
"What?"  
"Oh, nothing. It's just weird, but cool, to see you not in a Skype window."  
Troye smiled, "yeah, I can actually touch your face now." Which he did.  
"Stop poking me, you freak!" Tyler said laughing.  
When Zoe pulled up, she saw the two boys having an all-out poke war. She rolled down the window, waiting for them to notice.  
"Oh, Zoe!" Troye said.  
"Hi!" Tyler greeted excitedly, picking up his bag.  
"Hello! You can put your suitcase in the back with you," Zoe said as Troye called shotgun, jumping in.  
Tyler rolled his eyes at Troye and climbed in, finding a fast food bag waiting for him.  
"Troye said you liked chicken nuggets," Zoe explained as she started driving.  
Tyler groaned, "he just said that because me and Korey did the chicken nugget challenge and wanted to see if I'd throw up if I saw one again. I'm eating them," he said as he reached forward and flicked Troye's ear.  
Troye looked sheepishly at Zoe, who shook her head.  
"Anyways.... Ready to meet everyone, Tyler?"  
  
When they got to Troye's house, Dan, Phil, Louise, and Alfie were all waiting. Everyone greeted Tyler as he walked in, and soon they were all sitting in the living room, talking to their hearts content.  
"What are American schools like?" Dan asked, as all of them were getting a little culture shock.  
"Well, they are called grades not years. There's 12 of them, plus Pre-K and Kindergarten, when you're about 4-5. 1st through 5th is elementary school, 6th through 8th is middle school or junior high, and 9th through 12th is high school. I'm a junior going into my senior year," Tyler explained.  
When he received blank states at his last statement, he elaborated, "in high school there are names for the grades. 9th is freshman, then sophomore, then junior, then senior."  
"That's weird," Dan stated.  
They sat around talking about any and everything until the sun began to set.

  
After everyone left, it was just Troye and Tyler watching some movie that had been playing on the TV already.  
Troye looked over at Tyler, taking in everything about him he'd never gotten to see before. _He could reach out and touch him. Their hands were almost touching and he couldn't help but wonder if he just moved his hand a little closer..._  
He held his breath as he looked back to the movie, inching it a little closer to Tyler's. _If it didn't work, he could say it was an accident, right?_  
He didn't dare to look as Tyler looked over, glancing down at their hands. He felt Tyler's hand suddenly envelope his and he let out his breath, taking a glance back at Tyler. He was looking at the TV again as though nothing had happened. But he did glance over and meet Troye's eyes with a knowing smirk.  
It didn't seem like much... But it was everything.


	16. Awakening

The longer the week went on, the more Troye was convinced that Tyler knew about his crush on him. And he was using it to tease him. But the little things were sincere, and overall Troye was pleasantly confused.  
Tyler was sleeping in a sleeping bag on Troye's floor, his glasses lying beside him. Troye kinda wished they could've shared a bed. _Not even in a sexual way, just to feel Tyler's form beside him as he slept._ Troye shook his head, grabbing his laptop to distract himself from those kinds of thoughts. He browsed Tumblr for a good hour before Tyler woke up. _Maybe he was awake. Troye looked over at him, he had definitely stirred, but he might've gone back to sleep._  
He put his headphones in and started playing music while he went back to scrolling through his dashboard. He didn't hear Tyler, and he damn near had a heart attack when he felt Tyler flop down next to him. Tyler laughed as he took out his headphones, clutching his heart.  
"What's up?" Tyler asked innocently, putting on his glasses to see him.  
"My heart rate. You scared the hell out of me," Troye grumbled.  
Tyler giggled and scooted even closer than they already were in the single person bed, his face almost dangerously close as he looked at Troye's dashboard. Thank god it was just on a few popular text posts. A few moments earlier and it would have been on that questionable gif that really no one needed to see.  
Troye glanced over to see Tyler looking over at him.  
"What are you doing?"  
"Nothing, just seeing what you're doing," Tyler said slyly.  
Troye couldn't help but address the elephant in the room.  
"No, like with the touchy thing where you're holding my hand and scooting closer to me and kinda driving me crazy," Troye said quickly, half hoping Tyler would miss all of his words.  
But he didn't.  
"You started it," Tyler said simply.  
"I- what?"  
"You were trying to hold my hand during the movie."  
Troye couldn't deny it. "But the one time and this whole time you've been doing it and now I'm kinda confused."  
Tyler simply looked at him as if he was a sweet innocent child. "Aw, Troye."  
"I don't appreciate that look," Troye muttered, breaking the stare off they were apparently having.  
He froze as he felt Tyler rest his head on his shoulder, not missing his arms around his waist now.  
"Did you know that I..."  
"Yep," Tyler said, knowing exactly what he'd say. They weren't best friends for no reason.  
"Well, why didn't you say anything?!" Troye half shouted, twisting around to look at the older boy.  
"Not everything has to be so sappy and cliché," Tyler said, rolling his eyes.  
Troye groaned.  
"Do you want me to be sappy and cliché?" Tyler asked through a laugh.  
"Well it's better than confusing the hell out of me."  
"Oh my sweet summer child," Tyler said, unwrapping his arms and getting off the bed.  
"What? What does that mean?"  
Tyler just giggled in response as he walked out of the room.  
  
Tyler had literally disappeared. Troye wasn't very worried since the scariest thing in the neighborhood was Zoe when she hasn't slept or eaten in a while. So he just stayed in bed, scrolling through Tumblr and Twitter and YouTube. It wasn't until a few hours later that he heard the door open and shut again. He shut his laptop and went out to the living room to see... Tyler with roses. Not what he expected. He walked through the doorway slowly.  
"What...?"  
"You wanted sappy and cliché, I'm giving you sappy and cliché. Come on, I have a surprise." Tyler said, holding out his hand.  
Troye took it, still confused but absolutely loving it.  
Tyler took him to the park, so it wasn't terribly far a walk. He took him to the big oak tree, to Troye's delight, was a little picnic. There was a box of pizza and some homemade brownies.  
"Zoe made those," Tyler said as Troye reached for one.  
"My favorite," Troye said as he took a bite.  
Tyler laughed, sitting them down.  
"You know, I didn't think pizza was sappy and cliché," Troye said slyly.  
"Yeah, well then I also thought it was you."  
"Touché."

Later that night, Tyler slept in Troye’s bed instead of the floor. It was then that Troye really understood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the little late update, but I think the four chapters in a week before made up for it right?


	17. Moonlight

There weren't any words that could really capture the happiness Troye felt when he texted Dan later that night, after Tyler fell asleep next to him, to tell him what happened. He didn't expect an answer, since Phil had taken Dan out for dinner and a movie, so he kept scrolling through Tumblr, one arm around Tyler. Tyler's head rested on his chest and he could hear his soft snoring. He felt all warm and tingly inside, like butterflies strapped to tiny little heaters were flying around his tummy. _Hopefully the tiny heaters didn't hurt the butterflies_. But nothing else could keep him from the thought that he was finally with Tyler, in more than one way.  
  
 **Troye: 'OH MY GOD'**  
 **Troye: 'DAN I THINK IM DATING TYLER'**  
 **Troye: 'HE TOOK ME ON A PICNIC WITH ROSES AND EVERYTHING I CANT'**  
 **Troye: 'BUT HAVE FUN ON YOUR DATE YOU DONT HAVE TO REPLY YET IM JUST REALLY EXCITED'**  
Dan smiled at his phone, describing the situation to Phil. Phil grinned at him. They were sitting in a small cafe they had found walking about the shopping center after their movie. As they waited for their food, they talked about whether Captain America or Iron Man would win in a fight like the nerds they are.  
"But Cap is a super soldier, like especially if Tony didn't have his suit," Dan debated.  
"But Iron Man has rockets and stuff on his suit, and I'm assuming he does have a suit," Phil retorted.  
"Well.... Suit or not, Black Widow would kick both of their asses."  
"Alright, I'll give you that," Phil laughed.  
"They'd thank her for it too."  
"Well I mean, it is Scarlett Johannson."  
They fell into a smiley silence, glancing over at each other every once in a while. Their hands were intertwined under the table, and neither could stop smiling. Dan caught sight of two girls sitting at a nearby table looking at them and whispering.  
"I wish someone would look at me like that," one of them said to her friend.  
Her friend sighed in agreement, and Dan couldn't help but giggle.  
"We're making people jealous of our cute lovey-doveyness. It’s probably sickening to look at," Dan giggled.  
Phil rolled his eyes in response, squeezing his hand.  
"I'm gonna miss this..." Dan said quietly.  
Phil's face dropped a little, and he stroked his thumb across Dan's hand.  
"Me too... But hey, I won't be far. I'll be able to come over on weekends sometimes."  
"Yeah, but I won't get to randomly walk over to your house when I feel lonely or anything."  
"We still have phones," Phil said with a smile, "and we can Skype!"  
Dan smiled back, unable to not feel a little happier when Phil smiled.  
  
That night, as they lay in Phil's bed, Dan found himself simply staring at Phil's face illuminated by the moonlight. His pale skin seemed to almost glow in the light, contrasting his black hair. His eyes were closed, but Dan wasn't sure if he was completely asleep. Dan could feel the steady rise and fall of Phil's chest under his hand. It was soothing, and he felt like if there was to ever be a moment he wanted to live forever, it would be this. No nagging thoughts of anything, not even of Phil leaving in a couple months. Just Phil, asleep in the moonlight. Just Dan, his body curled up against him, his head hovering over Phil's, taking in everything. Dan's hand moved from Phil's chest to caress his jawline, his cheeks, everything. Dan wanted to remember every little thing. Phil's eyes opened slightly. He smiled softly at Dan, his arm wrapping around him. Dan stared into his eyes, memorizing every shade they had ever turned. He leaned down and kissed his forehead, his nose, his lips, down his jawline, back to his lips. Phil let out a small breathy laugh.  
"I don't want to forget any of this," Dan said softly.  
"I don't either... And Dan, after... After you finish school, maybe we could move in together. Then we could do this every night. We could have endless Pokémon battles and random debates at two A.M. I could go to classes and maybe you could too, or I dunno... It's just a thought." Phil suggested softly.  
Dan stared at him for a second before kissing him again.  
"Yes, oh my god, Phil, of course yes."  
Phil laughed as Dan laid his head back into the crook between Phil's neck and shoulders, cuddling back up to him. Dan felt Phil's hand stroke his hair, and in the silence, he fell asleep, happier than ever.


	18. News

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (I couldn't get a meetup for Troye, but I did get meetups for Tyler and Dan and Phil!!!1!)

It wasn't until two weeks later that Troye had to say goodbye to Tyler. _To his boyfriend_. The word rung around in his head and made him feel giddy, even after Tyler left for his plane back to America.  
  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Zoe was lounging on her couch, flicking through channels on the television, when her phone went off. She picked it up, seeing it was Louise.  
"Hey," she greeted.  
"Zoe... I have a problem..."  
Zoe sat up, turning off the TV. She had never heard her best friend so serious before.  
"What's wrong?"  
"I... I'm pregnant.."  
Zoe nearly dropped her phone along with her jaw.  
"We were safe about it and everything, but something happened and I didn't feel well this morning and I wanted to check just in case. I did it three times to make sure it wasn't just a messed up test, all of them turned up positive. I don't know what to do, Chummy. I haven't even told Matt yet," she explained.  
"Oh my god. Wow. Well, um... Well first off, you need to tell him. You can figure out what to do about the baby first, and then what to do after. I can help you figure out what to do if you want to keep it," Zoe offered.  
"Of course I want to keep it! I just don't know how to tell him! How will he react?"  
"I think he'll be alright about it, he's always been supportive before. Would you want the others to know or just me and you?" Zoe said.  
"You can tell the others, I don't mind... I guess I'll go talk to Matt then."  
"Okay, good luck," Zoe said sincerely. "Don't worry, if anything, you'll always have me."  
"Thanks Chummy," Louise said, sounding relieved.  
"Bye."  
"Bye."  
It was then that Zoe realized how much was going to change then.  
  
Dan was sitting on Troye's bed, a pizza box sat in between them.  
"And right before he left he kissed me! Like, I can't even describe it, it was so amazing. Like something out of a movie..." Troye said dreamily.  
Dan laughed, "I'm glad you finally got your happy ending. Or beginning, who knows?"  
"So, has anything happened with you? I've been hanging out with Tyler so much I haven't had time to keep up," Troye asked impishly.  
Dan grinned before saying, "Phil invited me to move in with him after I'm done with school. I could go to his university and stuff, but he's been talking about this apartment he's getting and moving me in in a year."  
Troye's mouth fell open and he dramatically fell onto his pillow and flailed, almost kicking the pizza box before Dan moved it as he laughed.  
"That is so CUTE!" Troye squealed.  
Dan rolled his eyes, still smiling as Troye sat back up.  
Troye's phone went off, Dan's not even a moment later.  
 **Zoe: Louise is pregnant!!**  
Troye literally slapped himself in the face as he covered his mouth, and Dan's eyes widened in shock. They looked at each other.  
They realized how much was going to change for all of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if a few of my latest chapters have been kinda short and awkward, I've come up with a few plot points, I'm just trying to get some background information across and not do any huge jumps without explaination


	19. Struck by Love

It was about a month after school started and Phil moved into the city. It was only twenty minutes away by bus, give or take, but still far away enough that Dan missed him like hell. They'd kept their promise to Skype every night, even to the point where they would just be doing homework in silence together via webcam.  
Dan looked up from his homework to look at his screen, where Phil was concentrating on his. He smiled at Phil's tongue poking out of his mouth as he wrote. Phil looked up and smiled at the camera. He suddenly looked like he remembered something.  
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! I finally got all my stuff moved in! You should come see my new apartment sometime," he said happily.  
Dan grinned, hoping his mother would let him go. He was looking forward to seeing him in person again. God knows how Troye did this for so long and counting.  
Dan flopped down onto his bed, glad to be done with his homework.  
"Phiiiil... I'm bored. And hungry," Dan complained at his boyfriend, who smiled apologetically.  
"Can't help you about the hunger. I can talk for a little bit, I think it's time for a break anyways. How is everyone?"  
"They're fine. Louise started taking parenting classes with Matt, he's gotten two part time jobs now, and she's still taking her classes online. Troye and Alfie are almost as pathetic as me. We look like a bunch of sad lost puppies without you guys," Dan said, laughing.  
"Aw, I can imagine you break the hearts of everyone who sees you."  
"We do. At lunch, people start crying as they pass because we are so sad. Well, actually they ignore us and we talk about our boy/girlfriends."  
Dan's stomach rumbled and he groaned at the fact that he'd forgotten to get dinner beforehand.  
"I should go get something to eat," Dan said.  
"I have to finish a paper," Phil said with a pout.  
"I'm sorry, but on the bright side, it's almost the weekend, so we can stay up all night doing whatever. We can watch movies on that one website that lets you watch them together online."  
"Yeah.... I love you," Phil said, blowing a kiss to the screen.  
Dan pretended to catch it. "I love you too."  
Then Dan ended the call and shut his laptop.  
He pulled on his jacket and grabbed his wallet. His mother was working late, so he figured he'd go out and get something.  
It was cloudy, as per usual, and it looked like it was going to rain soon. Oh well, he could handle getting a little wet.  
  
What he didn't expect was the sudden downpour of rain to come down halfway to the cafe. Between the rain and the asshole who made a wave of water splash him from the cold, he was drenched, cold, and miserable. He decided it would be better to just go back home and order a pizza.  
He started walking across the road when suddenly, he heard the engine. He looked up just in time to see the car heading right for him.  
  
Troye was sitting in his room, listening to music when he heard the phone ring. He pulled out his headphones and picked it up.  
 _Why was Dan's mom calling him?_  
"Hello?"  
"Troye, something's happened."  
Troye sat up, hearing the tears in her voice.  
"Dan's been hit by a car, and I can't get there. Please, if you are home, he's by the park, the ambulance are there, but I need to know if he's okay."  
"Already leaving." Troye said, pulling on his shoes in shock, running out the door as he hung up and put his phone in his pocket.  
He ran as fast as he possibly could, seeing the lights flashing and hearing the sirens wailing.  
There was a middle aged man being talked to by the police. The car was still running, and Troye noticed that the headlights weren't on. _Was that why Dan was now lying on a stretcher, being hoisted into the ambulance car?_ Troye ran over before they closed the door.  
"Wait, please!"  
"Do you know him?" The paramedic asked.  
He nodded, "I'm his best friend."  
The paramedic nodded and let him in. Troye sat next to Dan, staring at him. He was unconscious, and he looked... Broken. They'd laid him straight, but it was clear even to Troye that his arm was broken at the very least. His clothes were soaked through and his hair was sticky with blood dripping from his forehead. Troye covered his mouth with his hand, blinking away the tears forming in his eyes.  
"Is he going to be okay?"  
The paramedic hesitated before he answered, and that in itself made Troye's heart stop for a moment.  
"I couldn't tell you now. If anything, be thankful that the driver stopped and called. If it was a hit-and-run, he certainly would be dead within an hour."  
Troye ran his hands through his hair, unable to look at Dan anymore.  
When they reached the hospital, they rushed him to the emergency room, leaving Troye alone in the waiting room to explain it to Dan's mother. After he did, he had to call Zoe and Louise and Alfie to tell them... And then the call he dreaded most... He had to tell Phil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am evil and I am sorry


	20. Waiting

Phil was there thirty minutes later, not even bothering to grab his jacket after Troye called him and told him what had happened to Dan. He was riding in a cab to the hospital, feeling his entire body shaking from the cold and his fear for Dan. What if that Skype call was the last time he'd ever talk to Dan?  
When he entered the waiting room, it was just Troye and Louise sitting in solemn silence. He walked over to them, and Troye looked up.  
"How is he?" Phil asked nervously.  
"No idea... He hasn't come out of surgery yet. Last we heard, they were having to dig part of the guy's license plate out of his leg," Troye said with a grimace.  
Phil shakily sat in between them, as Louise had shifted over a seat for him.  
"Where's his mum?"  
"In the bathroom... She's been in there for a few hours now. Louise went in to check on her and she was crying in a stall..." Troye said softly.  
Phil closed his eyes, trying to stay calm. Or at least look like he was. He was cold and clammy, his hands were shaking, he could feel his heart pounding in his chest.  
He felt Louise start rubbing his back in a comforting way. Troye held his hand, and he silently thanked them as they fell once again into silence.  
  
An hour later, they called Dan's mother into the room, but they still wouldn't let them in.  
Phil sat with his head in his hands, simply thinking. Troye was texting Tyler, keeping him updated. Louise had left when they called Dan's mum in, promising to come by whenever she next could.  
So Phil thought. About the past, about the present, about the future. He thought about the first time he met Dan, how they talked as easily as old friends. He thought about the party, about how cute Dan looked with his bear costume. How Dan kissed him in the snow, and the nights they'd spent together.  
Another hour past, and a nurse came up to them and said it would be best for them to go home and sleep. Troye left, but Phil refused to move until he could see Dan.  
"If you need me for any kind of support, I'll have my phone with me," Troye said as he left, not bothering to remind Phil that it was 2 in the morning. He knew Phil wouldn't leave.  
Phil thought about how Dan was going to move in with him, and they'd wake up together every morning. That future seemed to be ticking away with every second, but Phil clung to it with everything he had. He couldn't lose Dan too. It would hurt even worse than when he lost Ian years ago. Phil realized he loved Dan with not just his heart, but his soul too, and he knew both would be broken if Dan died.  
Another hour of agonizing waiting. The seconds seemed to drag on for years. Phil was nodding off when he heard the door open. Mrs. Howell looked over at Phil with surprise, thinking they'd all have gone home.  
She was glad her son had found someone who loved him so much.  
She walked over, and Phil looked at her expectantly.  
"You can go see him now. He's in a stable condition... I still have to go to work tomorrow, so if he wakes up, tell him I love him." She explained.  
Phil nodded, "I will."  
"Second door to the right," she said softly before she left the room. Phil walked into the hallway, finding Dan's room. The nurse that told them to go home was in there with him, blocking Phil's view of his boyfriend. He walked in and she turned around. Her face softened when she saw him. He realized he was still wearing the t-shirt and jeans that had gotten soaked on his way there. Just from that, he must've looked a little pitiful. Plus the fact that he'd been waiting there for hours.  
She nodded as she past him, closing the door behind her to give him some privacy.  
He sat down in the chair beside Dan, taking in the bandages covering him, and Phil could only see what wasn't under the blanket. Phil felt his lip tremble as he took Dan's hand, letting the tears spill over. Dan was oblivious, sleeping or unconscious through Phil's shaky sobs.  
Once Phil had calmed himself down, blinking away the tears, he looked again at Dan's face. His hair was pushed away from his face, and Phil had only seen it like that one other time. It looked cute, and he could almost ignore the bandages and cuts for a moment. He gently touched Dan's face, feeling the tears welling up in his eyes again.  
"Please... Be okay..."


	21. Waking

He was drowning. All he could see was the dark infinity consuming him, and he couldn't find his way out.  
But in his head, he heard Phil's voice calling out to him.  
"Please... Be okay.."  
  
Dan fought his eyes open, forcing his mind to wake up. The light blinded him for a moment as he blinked it away. Everything was blurry and white, and he stared at the scene in confusion. His eyes began adjusting and he could make out the TV in front of him, and he guessed it was morning from the light beginning to come in,  illuminating the... Hospital room? Before he could attempt to make sense of it, or why his whole body was numb, his eyes fell onto Phil's sleeping form. He was sitting in a chair beside the bed, leaning over with his head resting on the bed and his arms folded under. His brow was furrowed, as if he was having a nightmare. Dan moved his arm, finding that he could only raise it a little. But the movement seemed to wake Phil, as he instantly shot up. Dan was shocked to see tears well up in his eyes when Phil looked at him.  
"Dan? Oh my god," he said as he threw his arms around Dan, careful not to hurt him anymore.  
"Phiil, wasgoinon..?" He realized his speech was slurred and he couldn't figure out why.  
Phil pulled away slightly, a tearful grin on his face.  
"Don't worry, you're just disoriented from all of the painkillers and medication." He explained.  
"Buh wha happened?" Dan asked in confusion.  
"A guy hit you. The idiot didn't have his headlights on, even though it was dark and rainy. He didn't see you."  
The image of a car barreling towards him revealed itself in Dan's mind as Phil explained it.  
Dan didn't say anything, just staring at Phil with a blank expression.  
Phil touched his face gently before reaching over and kissing his forehead.  
"Go back to sleep, you'll feel better when you wake up."  
Dan nodded and closed his eyes, sinking back into oblivion.  
  
The next time Dan woke up, there was a little lion plush in his hand. He recognized it from Phil's room. He looked over, but it was Troye sitting next to him, playing on his phone. He immediately dropped it when he realized Dan was awake.  
"Dan!"  
He winced at the volume, and Troye quietly apologized.  
"Where's Phil?" Dan asked, thanking god that while his voice was dry and scratchy, it wasn't slurred anymore.  
Troye reached over and handed Dan a glass of water, which he took gratefully.  
"He went home, well, to his parent's house I guess. He was here for 24 hours straight and it took the nurse, me, and your mum to convince him he needed to shower."  
"Oh..." He'd known Phil had been there when he woke up, he didn't know he'd been there all night.  
"As soon as I told him what happened, he jumped on the bus here. He didn't even get a jacket for gods sake, and it was rainy and he was soaked when he got here. Then he waited for I don't even know how long. I left at 2 in the morning so I don't even know how long he was there. And I am telling you this because I want you to know exactly how much Phil loves you."  
Dan fiddled with the mane on Lion, a soft smile on his face. Troye leaned back in the chair with an almost smug grin.  
"I am the best Matchmaker."  
Dan rolled his eyes, pushing away the dizziness in his head when he did.  
"You really worried us, you know." Troye suddenly said solemnly.  
Dan didn't answer, looking over from him. Even after a year, he wasn't quite used to people actually caring about him.  
"Zoe sent you something," Troye said in his normal tone.  
Dan looked back at him as Troye handed him a package. He opened it to find a little bear with a "get well soon" heart, and a bunch of different sweets. He took them out of the box, reading the letter tucked into the bear's arms.  
"Sorry I can't make it back to visit! Troye and Lou are keeping me updated and I'm thinking about you though! Get well soon! -xoxo Zoe"  
He smiled, then he noticed the book at the bottom of the box. He handed Troye the empty box to put on the floor as he looked at the cover.  
"Friends" was all it said, a simple golden script embroidered into the almost plush brown cover. He opened it.  
It was a scrapbook, he realized as he saw his own face smiling up at him. He turned the page and saw that his friends' pictures were on the next page. Phil making a goofy face at the camera. Zoe and Louise laughing about something. Troye's profile smiling at something of camera.  
Some of them were big pictures, like the ones Phil took during the play. Selfies they took backstage while they were in costume. The picture Louise took of his first kiss with Phil. Then there were random moments, like Troye and Dan trying not to smile (and failing) during a staring contest at their lunch table. Him and Phil both playing on their phones as they leaned on each other. Zoe covering her face as Troye took a selfie of them, making sure to get Alfie in the background of the Drama room. Phil taking a selfie while Dan was sleeping on him, a soft smile on his face as he looked at Dan instead of the camera. He hadn't even realized Phil took so many pictures of him, random places and settings, and Dan hadn't known about any of them.  
By the time he reached the group picture of all of them that they'd taken during the summer, including Tyler, Dan had tears running down his face silently. He blinked quickly as he closed it and looked at Troye, who was smiling wistfully at him.  
"We planned it not very long after we became your friends and knew you hadn't had friends before. Phil was in on it too. So we just went around, taking every photo opportunity.  Zoe made the scrapbook, Louise helped her. We couldn't think of a better time to give it to you. Figured you'd need to know that we are all here for you. Always will."  
Dan couldn't help the incoming flood of tears. They were happy tears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost gave you guys more angst... but it's Phil's birthday and I can't hurt his ficself on his birthday so I gave you guys some fluffy
> 
> EDIT: so I was going to post the next chapter today, but then my mom took my iPhone (which is where the chapter was in my notes) so I probably won't have it up until this weekend


	22. Coming Home

The next two weeks were regular checkups and medication and hours of bad soap operas because there were only three stations on the TV. His mum would come in whenever she could and check up on him, but mainly Dan was just bored. Troye couldn't come sit with him all the time since he had to go to school, but he came whenever he could nonetheless. Phil was there during weekends, but he still had to go to his classes. The wonder of being in the hospital soon wore off as he got more frustrated at his lack of Internet and the use of his body.  
The only good thing that came out of it was that he didn't have to go to class. But as Sophia found out that Derrick had been cheating on her all along, Dan was starting to wish that he could be at school. _At least Troye and Alfie were at school to talk to_. Dan thought he might be going crazy as he made Lion have conversations with his bear. _But at least it was Friday... Phil would be there tomorrow._  
  
"Come on, Phil, I'm dying of boredom," Dan said aloud to the empty room, staring at the clock.  
Minutes ticked by for centuries until he finally heard the door open. He grinned as Phil appeared.  
"I have some good news," Phil said as he walked over and kissed Dan's forehead.  
Dan looked expectantly at Phil, waiting for it.  
"They are letting you out." He said as his face split into a grin.  
"Are you serious?! Phil, I swear if you are lying-"  
"No, no! The nurse just told me. They are releasing you. You still have to be basically bedridden for another week, but at least at your own house."  
"Thank god, I'll have Internet again."  
Phil smiled and pulled him into a hug, careful about his sprained wrist. Dan closed his eyes and enjoyed the embrace. He missed this so much.  
  
His mom bought them pizza to celebrate, and by 7 o clock, Dan was leaning against Phil as they had a movie night in the living room.  
"The end of the year can't come fast enough," Dan said wistfully as he looked over at Phil.  
Phil squeezed him gently with his arm, "I agree."  
After a moment, he leaned over and kissed Dan.  
"I love you," he murmured as they broke apart, his forehead on Dan's.  
"I love you too."  
Dan pulled him into another kiss, feeling like his heart could burst from happiness. He silently thanked whatever force lead him to meeting Phil. _God, fate, chance, who cared._ All Dan knew was that he was happy.  
Until he heard footsteps coming in and quickly broke off the kiss as his mother came into the room. He blushed at the knowing smile on her face before she handed him an envelope.  
"Louise knew you'd both be here, so this is for both of you." She said as she walked back out, her footsteps retreating to her bedroom.  
Dan handed it to Phil, who opened it for him. He pulled the single page card out and read aloud:  
"You are invited to the wedding of Louise Alexandra Pentland and Matthew David Watson, November 22nd"  
Dan's eyes widened as he grabbed his phone from the table and dialed Louise.  
"You didn't say you got engaged!" He shouted as soon as she answered.  
Her giggle answered over the speakerphone.  
"Yeah, he asked a couple weeks ago but I wanted it to be a surprise. Only one I told was the parents," she said in an excited tone.  
"You didn't even tell Zoe?" Phil asked incredulously.  
"Oh btw, you're on speaker; Phil's here," Dan said.  
"Hi Phil! No, you actually just missed her freaking out for half an hour. Nearly broke my door down, I swear."  
Dan laughed, able to picture it.  
"So what are you going to do? Are you going to find your own apartment?" Phil wondered.  
"Yeah, he's nearly saved enough to pay a month's rent from his part times, and our parents are all chipping in to buy an apartment. We've been looking at one not far from this neighborhood. Oh, Matt found a good paying full time job at an office too."  
"That's good," Phil commented.  
"I'm happy for you," Dan said with a smile.  
"Thank you," Louise said cheerfully, "and I'm going to have reserved seats for you guys, right up front."  
"Aw, thanks!" Phil said.  
"But how are you, Dan? I heard you are back home!"  
"I'm fine, just glad to finally be out of there. I still have to wear the brace on my wrist and stuff, but otherwise, I'm fine. Plus Phil's here, so..."  
"Aw, well I'm glad you're better! I'll stop by tomorrow, and I'm baking cookies right now, so I'll bring some over."  
"Thanks," Dan said gratefully.  
"See you then, bye!"  
"Bye!" Dan and Phil said in unison.  
They settled back in after Dan set his phone back down.  
After a few minutes of movie watching, Dan turned back to Phil.  
"Do you ever realize how old you are? Like, last year it seemed like growing up would be forever away, but now... It's like I'll blink and suddenly be an adult."  
"Well, that would be a feat, I'll admit," Phil teased. "But really Dan, nothing has really changed... Just think of it as another step in life. We may be growing up some, but we didn't just suddenly become adults."  
"But it's also like... I'm excited about growing up, even if I want to stay a teenager. I'm excited about moving in with you. Not so much about having to get a job and stuff." Dan explained.  
"You don't have to worry about that now, You don't have to worry about it until after college." Phil replied, squeezing Dan's good hand.  
Dan felt only a little reassured, but he dropped the matter anyways.  
 _But what then, Phil? What then?!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so I am currently at Playlist and if you interested to see things I post about it (pics and stuff) you can go check out my Tumblr, Twitter, but mostly Instagram (all of them have the URL/username "samdafangirl")
> 
> Tyler Oakley said he loved my hair and I watched Dan and Phil play a "whose tweet was it" game already (plus got selfies with Jim Chapman and Ben J Pierce... So there is lots going on)


	23. Happy Endings

The next month was filled with lots of catching up with homework, procrastinating on doing so, and helping Louise. Since Zoe couldn't be there 24/7 to help her out with planning the wedding, it was unofficially set to Dan to help, with occasional help from Troye or Phil. Phil couldn't come in person, but he helped Dan make decisions over Skype.  
It didn't help that Louise would go through mood swings. Dan made it a habit to bring chocolate with him when he went over to her new apartment.  
"I think Percy if it's a boy, Darcy if it's a girl."  
"Oh, Dan, do you think Zoe looks better in pink or yellow? I can't decide on the dresses!"  
Many things were placed on Dan's shoulders to answer in person, no matter how small or big. Good thing Dan didn't really mind and was alright with helping. He was certainly spending much more time on Pinterest...  
But the hard work was worth it, Dan noted as he looked around the finished room. They'd rented a building for the ceremony and after-party, and now it was set up just like she wanted. There were pink and blue balloons everywhere, and a DJ booth set up in the corner. A food table was off to the side with all sorts of food, both healthy and not. Dan still wasn't sure how he'd gotten the job, but he did a damn good job.  
He was now waiting in his room for Phil to arrive. Troye was dramatically posing in front of Dan's full length mirror on the door, pretending to be James Bond in his tux.  
Dan had put the shirt and pants on, but hadn't felt like putting the tie or blazer on yet, and he was careful not to mess them up as he laid on his bed. Troye wasn't talking about it, but he was also excited, as Tyler was coming too, his flight already in the country.  
"Do you think they'll do the do?" Troye asked Dan, flopping beside him, not really caring about his clothes.  
"Troye!"  
"Well, I don't know! Usually you'd do it on your wedding night but she's pregnant so-"  
"Troye, just- shhhh," Dan covered Troye's mouth with his hand, immediately pulling it away when he felt Troye lick it.  
He glared at the younger boy as he wiped his hand on his sheets, to which Troye only grinned at him.  
"I'd slap you if I didn't have this on," Dan said, nodding towards his brace.  
"Well that's a shame, isn't it?" Troye said, moving out of the way as Dan's other hand came for him.  
"Dan, Phil is here!" His mom's voice came from below.  
Dan jumped up and ran downstairs, leaving Troye in the dust as he jumped into Phil's arms, almost knocking him over. Phil laughed and balanced himself as Dan buried his face into his shoulder. When Dan finally let Phil go, Phil stared at him.  
"You are almost taller than me! When did that happen?"  
Dan laughed, realizing he was right. Where he used to be to Phil's ear, he was almost rising above him.  
"Guess you missed my growth spurt," Dan said as he took Phil's hand and dragged him upstairs to where Troye had sprawled himself out on Dan's bed.  
"Hi Phil, you better look out, or I'll seduce your boyfriend with my hotness in this Bond suit."  
Phil laughed, rolling his eyes, "Seduce your own boyfriend."  
"I did, you just missed my photoshoot I sent Tilly." Troye remarked.  
"Anyways," Dan said before Troye could continue, "we need to get dressed and be there by 1, so we have roughly 20 minutes before we have to leave."  
"I'll go ahead and change then," Phil said as Dan handed him his suit from the closet. "You mind if I-"  
"Nope, go ahead. Troye, no looking." Dan said, making Troye attempt to hold a laugh in.  
As Phil pulled off his shirt, Dan couldn't help but look over himself and watch as Phil pulled on the white button up.  
"Tsk tsk tsk," Troye said, startling Dan, and Dan turned pink against his will, and he got busy with trying to tie his tie. Troye giggled as he turned to his phone.  
"I'm going to call Tyler, his flight just landed." He said, quickly walking out and shutting the door behind him, making the pink in Dan's cheeks to redden even more as he fumbled with the tie. Phil smirked at him before walking over and taking the tie from Dan's hands. He tied it a lot faster than Dan could have. Dan stared at Phil, his breath catching when his blue-green eyes looked back up at him. Even with all the time they'd been together, he still couldn't get over how beautiful Phil really was. Phil didn't let go of his tie; instead, he used it to pull Dan closer and kiss him. It seemed over too quick, as Phil turned away and grabbed his blazer and pulled it on.  
“You should get ready, Dan, we have to leave soon.”  
Dan couldn’t help but notice the teasing tone in Phil’s voice as he snapped out of his daze. He made sure to whack him with his socks before pulling them on.  
Ten minutes later and they were both ready, and Troye came in to announce that Tyler would be meeting them there. Dan’s mother had tears in her eyes as she gathered them for a picture, and Dan didn’t know whether to be a little embarrassed or happy that she looked so proud of him.

Troye bolted over to Tyler as soon as they got there, leaving Dan and Phil to stand by the wall awkwardly as they mutually realized they didn’t know very many people there, as all of their friends were busy with something.  
“It looks great,” Phil commented as he looked around the party room, where people were already sitting and chatting.  
“Thanks… It definitely took some work. But Louise is happy, so I guess it was worth it.”  
Phil smiled at him and they fell into silence as they watched people come in and join their friends or family. Troye came over with Tyler a minute later, grinning.  
“Zoe is here too, helping Lou get ready!” he shouted excitedly, “The Nerd Squad is back together!”  
“The Nerd Squad?” Dan repeated in confusion.  
“Well we are,” Troye stated.  
Dan nodded, trying not to laugh, but failing.

The “Nerd Squad” had all gotten front row seats to the ceremony, and as Louise and Matt said their vows, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Tyler and Phil both claimed that there was just something in their eyes, but Dan and Troye were blubbering all over each other during the whole thing. Dan couldn’t help but look at Phil and wonder if this could be them one day. He saw Phil standing at the altar, pretending like he wasn’t tearing up. Sitting by the beach with matching rings, and sharing an apartment. Maybe they could adopt a child, or a dog, or both. A cute little family.

The afterparty was something, with everyone talking and laughing. All the single ladies fought for the bridal bouquet to Beyoncé, while the married women laughed wistfully. Dan and Phil sat at a table with Troye, Tyler, and Alfie, and they watched and laughed along. Zoe came over with the bouquet a minute later, grinning mischievously at them. Louise and Matt joined them, and then the group was really back together.  
As Dan looked around at his friends, he reminisced at times past, and the futures waiting for them.  
He felt Phil squeeze his hand under the table, and he leaned his head on Phil’s shoulder, ignoring the collective “aww” that rang around the table.  
Everything would be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry for the lateness, but i'm a little conflicted about this. On one hand, I feel like this would be a good ending here. On the other, there are some loose ends I haven't tied up, but on another (where did that come from??), it leaves it to your imagination... this may be the end 
> 
> Either way, Happy Valentine's Day!
> 
> (also I may start a new phanfic with Dil soon, possibly today, who knows)(it could be like a sequel to this?)(lemme know what you guys think)  
> EDIT: I did. its already the fluffiest thing i've ever written and that's including any chapter from this.  
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/3368843/chapters/7367579


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